To Be A Master
by Tactition101
Summary: The Shadow Clone jutsu wasn't the only thing Naruto walked away with when he took the Forbidden scroll. He found three creatures that the world hadn't seen in a long time sealed as well. Find out what happens when Naruto becomes a Pokemon Trainer. Update Time Frame is roughly once every eight weeks.
1. The Trainer's First Test

To Be A Master

1. The Trainer's First Test

Summary: Shadow Clones wasn't the only thing Naruto came away with when he took the forbidden scroll. See what happens when he finds three Pokemon as well.

Need to Know: Naruto's happy go lucky side is actually a mask. The truth is that he is actually a lot calmer, smarter, and more strategically oriented than he let's most people know. The only person who actually knows this is the Third.

Story Begins: Forest Outside of Hidden Leaf Village

Naruto wiped his brow, finally done learning the shadow clone jutsu, glad that the Third had decided to go along with Naruto's idea and use this opportunity to catch a traitor. And if all went as planned, Naruto would be an official Gennin afterwards. The fact that the third had suggested taking a look at the first three things in the scroll just added icing to the cake in his opinion.

Naruto had always been terrible at the clone jutsu. Finally finding one that he could not only do but seemed to excel at really made his day. Add the facts that not only were they solid and could perform jutsu but also that the owner got the memories from them when they dispelled, and you had one happy camper.

'All right, let's see what we've got next.' Naruto thought as he sat down and looked at the scroll again. Seeing a storage seal next, he paused wondering what could be so bad that it would be sealed inside the forbidden scroll. The Third had recommended taking a look though so Naruto shrugged and pumped chakra into the seal.

The seal flared before three small balls that were red on top and white on bottom with hinges on one side and a button on the other as well as a weird red rectangular device popped out. A note appeared as well. Deciding to play things safe on this one, Naruto reached over to the note and read:

If you are reading this, then you have accepted the challenge that I could not meet. The three balls that have left the seal contain creatures called Pokemon. I found these three along with the device, which I have learned is called a Pokedex, in some ruins in the mountains of the Land of Fire. From what we and the archeologists that were with my team have uncovered, they are the last of their kind in this world. They are said to have powers that are similar and in many ways stronger than those of shinobi. However, none of us could summon them. All of us failed the test given to us to summon them. Perhaps you will have better luck. Simply place your hands on the Pokedex and it will test you. Good luck. Minato Namikaze.

Naruto's eyebrow had raised as he read about the creatures in the note, but his eyes shot wide open at the name at the end.

'Holy, not even the Fourth could pass the test. Still, I might as well try. The Old Man obviously thought I had a chance to pass this test whatever it is, and it can't hurt to try right?'

With that thought, Naruto placed his hand on the Pokedex. All of a sudden, Naruto's life flashed before his eyes as he relived everything in a little less than a minute making him dizzy from the vision of his life going by at a blur. The Pokedex then beeped causing Naruto to drop it. When the Pokedex hit the ground, it flipped open and a voice came from it.

"You have endured many hardships and still came out strong. You have passed my test and earned the right to be called Trainer."

Right after the Pokedex spoke, the three Pokeballs glowed a golden color before they expanded into hand sized orbs and opened on their hinges releasing a red beam of light from each ball. The beams turned towards the ground and changed shapes once they hit. When they did, the red light faded away leaving three small creatures that had not been seen in the world for a long time.

The first one was standing on all four legs and was a light bluish green with a green bulb on its back. The next one looked like a orange lizard that stood on its hind legs with a flame on its tail. The third one looked like a blue turtle with a yellow and brown shell that also stood on its hind legs. As soon as they were visible, the Pokedex began talking again.

"Bulbasaur. Pokemon Type: Seed. For some time after its birth, it grows by gaining nourishment from the seed on its back."

"Charmander. Pokemon Type: Lizard. The fire on the tip of its tail is a measure of its life. If healthy, its tail burns brightly."

"Squirtle Pokemon Type: Tiny Turtle. It shelters itself inside its shell, then strikes back with spouts of water at every opportunity

As the Pokedex spoke, a picture of each said Pokemon was visible on its screen. As this was going on, the Pokemon were looking around.

The bulbasaur cocked its head and said "Bulba, bulbasaur, saur?"

The squirtle looked around some more before saying "Squir, squirtle."

The charmander spotted Naruto and its eyes widened before it pointed at him and said "Charmander! Char Charmander!"

Naruto rose an eyebrow as all three Pokemon were now looking at him. "Okay, why are you guys just saying your names?" he asked trying to figure out these weird creatures. It was actually the Pokedex that answered.

"Pokemon are incapable of human speech. They rely on a language that is based off of the species' name and uses accents on certain parts of the word to form different meanings."

Naruto got a wtf look on his face before he shook it away and simply decided that that little info belonged with the rest of the insane stuff that was currently going on. Looking at the three who were still looking curiously at the blond, he looked back at the Pokedex and asked it if it had anymore information on them.

Two Hours Later

Naruto was looking at the third entry in the forbidden scroll when his watch went off. Naruto took a quick glance at it and shut the alarm off before he rolled the scroll close and put it on his back. He then recalled his new Pokemon who had been laying underneath some trees as Naruto read the scroll.

'I'll have to try the exploding clone jutsu some other time. Now all I have to do is wait for Mizuki to come and I can bust his rear end with the shadow clone jutsu. I had wondered why the Old Man didn't have ANBU come with me. Old geezer must have known that I would be able to use it so well.'

Naruto was brought out of his thoughts when someone landed in front of him and said "There you are Naruto! Do you have any idea what kind of trouble you're in?"

Naruto's eyes widened as he recognized his teacher Iruka.

'Oh crap, no one else was supposed to be here.' He thought before he said "Iruka-sensei you need to leave, now."

Iruka was about to berate his student when the words said student had said and the tone of voice he used finally took root in his mind.

"What do you mean?" He asked before both heard the sound of metal flying through the air.

"Look out!" Iruka shouted while he pushed Naruto out of the way and got pinned to the nearby shed by multiple kunai in the process.

Hearing the sound of laughter, Naruto looked along the kunai flight path and saw Mizuki on a tree branch.

'There he is.' Naruto thought with narrowed eyes.

"I must say Iruka, I'm impressed. I didn't expect you to find him before I did." Mizuki said as he smirked at how helpless Iruka looked before turning to Naruto and said "Naruto, give me the scroll, and I'll pass you."

"No Naruto, don't do it! Mizuki is just trying to trick you!" Iruka shouted from his position.

'No duh.' Naruto thought. But before he could say anything, Mizuki laughed and said "I'm not trying to trick him Iruka. No more than the rest of the village is anyway."

Iruka's eyes widened as Naruto's narrowed before he said "What do you mean?"

Mizuki gave a mad looking grin and said "Do you want to know why the village hates you Naruto?"

Iruka began struggling and shouted out "No Mizuki, you mustn't! It's forbidden!"

Mizuki smirked and said "The reason why the village hates you is a secret that the Third Hokage made twelve years ago on the night the Kyubi attacked. A secret punishable by death if the adults of this village told their children. You see, the Fourth didn't kill the Kyubi, he sealed it into a baby whose umbilical cord had just been cut. (Naruto's eyes widened slightly before narrowing again.) That's right Naruto! You were that baby! You're the Kyubi, the Nine Tailed Fox. Which is why you'll never be recognized and never become Hokage!"

Mizuki began laughing again. Iruka was about to say something but he never got the chance.

"Is that it?"

Both Chunnin looked at Naruto who had a raised eyebrow looking at Mizuki like he was an idiot. Mizuki was wondering why Naruto wasn't an emotional wreck while Iruka was trying to figure out how his favorite student could be so calm while facing a Chunnin.

Naruto shook his head and said "I knew you were a traitor Mizuki, but I didn't think you were an idiot as well." Pulling out one of the Pokeballs from his pocket, he held it up and said "I am no more the Kyubi than this Pokeball is a bulbasaur."

Mizuki and Iruka looked confused at this and Mizuki said "I have no idea what you are talking about you demon brat and I don't care! Once I kill you, I'll be seen as a hero!"

Naruto smirked and said "Not likely. You know what, I was going to simply use the shadow clone jutsu that I learned from the scroll to bring you down for the Old Man, but I think I'll let one of my new Pokemon have a shot at you."

Naruto pushed the button on the Pokeball on his hand. The ball enlarged itself causing the two Chunnin's eyes wide. Naruto then threw the ball and said "Go, bulbasaur!" The ball hit the ground and released the grass Pokemon.

Iruka and Mizuki stared at the Pokemon before Mizuki laughed and said "Hah! What the hell is that thing? What in the world can that thing do? You know what? I think I'll just kill it as well as you!"

Mizuki took a demon shuriken off of his back and began twirling it before throwing it earning a shout from Iruka telling Naruto to get out of the way.

Thinking fast, Naruto called out "Bulbasaur! Razor Leaf!"

The grass Pokemon gave out a shout as it launched it's attack. Two leaves shot out of its bulb and intercepted the shuriken before cutting straight through it making the two Chunnins' eyes widen again. The leaves kept going and Mizuki was forced to jump from his perch to the ground in order to avoid them. As he did, the three pieces of the shuriken their path's altered slightly by the passage of the leaves, passed by either side and above Naruto before slamming into the ground behind him.

Neither Mizuki or Iruka had time to notice this though since as soon as Mizuki hit the ground Naruto called out "Leech Seed!" Bulbasaur leaned forward and pointed its bulb towards Mizuki before firing a seed out of it. Mizuki was unable to dodge in time and the bulb hit him before vines came out and wrapped around him. The vines then began glowing red and Mizuki began screaming before dropping unconscious ten seconds later. The vines then retracted and the seed dropped off of the traitor's body. Bulbasaur walked over to the seed that had dropped off of the traitor and touched the seed with its foot. To everyone's surprise including Naruto's, the seed glowed before being absorbed.

Naruto rose an eyebrow and thought 'Didn't expect that.' before he said "Great job bulbasaur." Said Pokemon smirked and nodded before walking back to Naruto who held up the Pokeball and said "Bulbasaur, return." The Pokeball opened a little before a red beam of light hit bulbasaur and drew it back into the ball. As soon as the ball closed again, Naruto put it back into his pocket and turned around and ran over to Iruka and began taking out the kunai.

As he was doing this, Iruka said "Naruto, what was that thing?"

Naruto looked up from the last kunai that he had just taken out from Iruka's pant leg and said "A Pokemon."

"A what?" Iruka said trying to figure out what that word even meant.

"It's something I found in the forbidden scroll that the Old Man told me to look at while I waited to catch Mizuki."

Iruka let those words sink into his mind before his eyes widened and he said "The Hokage told you to steal the scroll?"

Naruto stood up from his crouching position and nodded. Seeing his favorite teacher's look of confusion and shock he said "Come on, I'd rather explain this only once." He turned and walked over to Mizuki and picked him up in a fireman's lift and began walking back to the village to give his report to the Hokage.

Iruka shook himself before taking off after his student. As he did, what Naruto had said a short time ago finally registered. Turning to Naruto he said "Naruto, did you say earlier that you learned the Shadow Clone jutsu?"

Naruto nodded and Iruka simply shook his head deciding to save his questions until they talked to the Hokage.


	2. Naruto's Change

2. Naruto's Change

Sarutobi looked up from his crystal ball as Naruto and Iruka entered his office. Smiling, he said "I saw you were able to pass the test. I had a feeling you would."

Naruto nodded before dumping the still unconscious Mizuki hap hazardously on the couch that was in the office before he unslung the scroll from his back and placed it on his leader's desk.

Sarutobi picked up the scroll and put it behind one of the Hokage's pictures inside a hidden safe before going back to his seat and said "Now then, why don't you explain what happened tonight to Iruka Naruto?"

Naruto nodded and sat down in one of the chairs and said "You're going to want to sit down as well Iruka-sensei. This could take a while."

Iruka looked hesitant before taking the other chair. Once he was sitting, Naruto began talking explaining to his teacher what happened earlier that day.

"Today after graduation, I was approached by Mizuki who told me of a way I could graduate. Thinking that it might be like that Rock Lee kid I heard about who graduated last year with the Old Man's permission since it was found he couldn't use chakra outside of his body, I asked him how. He told me that to pass, I had to slip into the Hokage Tower and steal a scroll that would be marked forbidden. I decided to play along and told him I would do it. After he told me where and when to meet him, I went straight to the Old Man and told him about what Mizuki had told me. The Old Man wanted to just grab the traitor and send him to Ibiki but I asked permission to go through with it and catch him in the act. The Old Man agreed and told me to look at the first three entries on the scroll since he said that they should be able to be of use to me."

Iruka's eyes widened as Naruto continued "The first entry was the shadow clone which I must admit seems to have been custom made for me since I can literally make an army of them and not break a sweat. (Iruka's eyes went bug eyed when Naruto said that.) The third entry was the exploding shadow clone. I haven't actually had a chance to try it out yet but I'm going to as soon as I get the chance. But those two aren't the real kickers. The real show stealer was the second entry. It was a storage seal that contained three balls, and a device as well as a note written by the Fourth himself."

Naruto pulled out his three Pokeballs and the Pokedex. Pressing the button on the three balls, they grew hand sized before Naruto pushed the buttons again causing them to open and for his Pokemon to appear in beams of red light.

As Iruka stared at the creatures, they looked around the office while Naruto continued. "These guys are Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle. They're called Pokemon, and are apparently the only ones left in the world. The device in my hand is called a Pokedex and is what tested me to see if I would be their trainer. It's basically an encyclopedia on the different Pokemon that used to exist. You would not believe what some of them looked like."

Naruto then explained what the Pokedex had told him about his own Pokemon.

Once he was done, Sarutobi lit his pipe with a small fire jutsu and said "Now then, on to other matters, namely what Mizuki told you Naruto. I'm glad to see you're handling the knowledge of your prisoner so well."

Naruto shrugged and said "While it does explain how I've been treated, that knowledge doesn't change who I am. I was Naruto Uzumaki before I learned about the big fuzz ball and I'm still Naruto Uzumaki now. The only difference is that I can add the title Jinchuriki to my title of Pokemon Trainer if I want to."

Sarutobi nodded and said "I see. Well then, there's one last thing that I have to do before you can leave Naruto."

Opening a drawer in his desk, Sarutobi pulled out a Leaf headband before standing and handing it to Naruto.

"Welcome to the ranks of the Hidden Leaf Shinobi Naruto. And remember, if you ever need anything, just ask."

Iruka put a hand on Naruto's shoulder and said "The same goes for me Naruto."

Naruto nodded before he said "Thanks guys. Actually Old Man, there is a couple of things. I need a place to be able to train my Pokemon where no one else will notice since it could get pretty destructive. Also, I need a way to feed these guys since my orphan's stipend won't be able to keep all four of us fed even if it didn't no longer apply to me since I'm now a Gennin."

Sarutobi frowned and said "That's true Naruto. I hadn't realized that you would have more mouths to feed. My apologies. I'll set up another stipend for you so that you can buy whatever you need for them. There's actually a fund for shinobi to take care of their partners that is made just for that purpose. As for a training area, I recommend using the woods behind the Hokage Monument since most people don't go there often and there is an actual training area there that is no longer used. That should work until your team's assigned a training ground."

Naruto nodded and thanked the man as he tied his headband to his head before he recalled his Pokemon and exited the office.

Scene Change: Hokage Monument, The Next Morning

Naruto stared out over the village from where he stood on the Fourth's head. It wasn't but a couple of days ago when he had painted and then cleaned this very monument to the village leaders. But now, Naruto could no longer afford to wear the mask of the happy go lucky prankster. He was a shinobi of his village now and playtime was officially over.

This was made apparent by Naruto's change of clothing. Gone was his kill me orange jumpsuit. In its place were a pair of blue shinobi pants that were taped at his ankles and a dark blue short sleeved ninja shirt under a dark green vest. Attached to a belt going around Naruto's waist was his kunai pouch on with his Pokeballs clipped to the belt next it.

Naruto stared at the village for another minute before turning around and began walking into the woods. He soon came across the training field that the Old Man had told him about. True to his word, the place looked like it hadn't been tended to in years. The grass was up to Naruto's knees and there were even a few trees beginning to grow in the small field. The training logs looked like they needed to be replaced as well.

As he looked around, Naruto thought 'It could use some work but I don't think the guys would mind giving me a hand with it.'

Unclipping his Pokeballs from his belt, he held the three in between his fingers before pushing their buttons and throwing them in the air where they expanded and released their residents before returning to Naruto.

The three released Pokemon looked around as Naruto returned the balls to his belt and said "All right guys, for the next week this is going to be where we are going to be training. As you can see, it needs a bit of work getting it back in shape. We'll use some of your attacks to give me and my clones a hand in clearing the area. So, you guys ready to get started?"

The three nodded and Naruto began directing them in using their powers to prepare the area that they would be training in for the next week.

Time Skip: Day Before Gennin Orientation Scene: Ninja Registration Office

Sarutobi looked over one of his new Shinobi's picture. It displayed the blond with a calm look in his eye as he looked at the camera with a small smirk. He nodded his approval and stamped approved on the form that the picture was stapled to and placed it with the other registration forms.

He then looked over to another picture that Naruto had handed to him that showed him kneeling down on the roof of the Hokage Tower with his Pokemon in front of him. All four were wearing smiles and Naruto had his hands on Squirtle and Charmander's shoulders with Bulbasaur between the two. Like their trainer, all three Pokemon had headbands. They were different from their trainer in that theirs did not have a metal plate on them instead having the leaf symbol painted in black on the dark green cloth.

Sarutobi handed the picture back to Naruto who put it back in his vest and asked "How has training been?"

Naruto smiled and said "Quite well actually. I've been able to really improve my chakra control thanks to the Shadow Clone jutsu. I'm still having a bit of trouble with the Exploding Clone Jutsu, but that's just because you have to learn how much chakra needs to go into them for the explosion you want. The little guys have been doing real well as well. They can already properly use two of their secondary attacks each."

Seeing the confusion on his leader's face, he explained.

"Like shinobi, Pokemon can't just use a move automatically the first time they try. They have to learn how to properly do the technique. There were some techniques that could be learned instantly from machines called Technical Machines. Dex said that it can replicate them but wants me to hold off on those until they learn a few more moves. Anyway, unlike shinobi, when Pokemon are born, they already can do four attacks, called their primary attacks, properly. The attacks that they learn to do later through training are called secondary attacks. These are usually the moves they will rely on the most as the Pokemon become stronger, and eventually evolve, all though some of the primary attacks are used just as much if they are effective enough."

Sarutobi nodded and said "I see-"

It was obvious to Naruto that he wanted to say more, but before he could, a boy threw the door open and charged toward the old man with a shuriken in his hand declaring his imminent victory before promptly tripping on his scarf sending him crashing into the ground.

Naruto fell off his seat in laughter as the old leader placed his face in his hand. He may have pretty much given up pranking except against those who deserved it, but that was just hilarious in his opinion.

The kid got up rubbing his face and said "Ow. What happened?" He then noticed Naruto who was now chuckling as he got back in his seat. Narrowing his eyes in anger, he went over to Naruto and said "You! You tripped me! Admit it!"

Naruto snorted and said "I didn't trip you kid, you did it yourself."

The kid growled and tried punching Naruto with a yell but a flash of red light appeared and a vine wrapped around the kid's wrist and then held him a few feet in the air causing the kid to begin yelling to be let down. Sarutobi and Naruto meanwhile were looking at Bulbasaur who in turn was looking up at the kid in annoyance. Both had raised eyebrows since Naruto's hands had been nowhere near Bulbasaur's Pokeball when it came out.

Naruto took out his Pokedex and flipped it open and said "Hey Dex, how come Bulbasaur came out when I didn't call him?"

The voice of the Pokedex came out of it's speakers "Pokemon are capable of exiting the Pokeball on their own once the Pokeball registers them as properly caught. However, since the inside of the Pokeball turns into habitats that are designed with that particular Pokemon in mind through use of spatial holographic technology, they are usually content to remain inside their Pokeballs until called." (I just pulled that right out of thin air. Though it will explain how they can stand being inside their Pokeballs for such long periods of time.)

Naruto and Sarutobi both rose their eyebrows again while the kid had finally stopped shouting and was looking at Bulbasaur in awe. Bulbasaur was meanwhile looking at the kid who had tried to assault its trainer wearily in case he tried anything else as he set the kid on the floor keeping its vine around his wrist just in case.

Naruto then frowned as he suddenly thought of something and said "Wait, if they can come out on their own, does that mean that they are aware of what happens outside of the Pokeball when they are inside?"

The occupants of the room could have sworn they heard smugness in Dex's voice as it said "Of course, haven't you noticed the screens on the insides of the balls when they open?" (Check any episode where the Pokeball is open for longer than a few seconds. You well see that there are actually screens on the inside.)

"Uh, no, I haven't." Naruto said as he unclipped Bulbasaur's now empty Pokeball and opened it. Sure enough, there were four small screens on the inside of the top half of the ball.

Before more could be said though, a man wearing sunglasses and a special Jounin vest slid into the open doorway and said "Honorable Grandson are you in he- release the Honorable Grandson you monster!"

Bulbasaur shot an annoyed look towards the speaker as its eye twitched at being called a monster and unwrapped its vine before shooting it out at the special Jounin sweeping it under the man's feet causing him to fall. Naruto rose an eyebrow at his Pokemon's action as the kid stared with his jaw slightly dropped.

Bulbasaur then smirked before it walked over to Naruto and pushed the button on its ball with its vine which drew it back in and closed in a click. Throughout it all, Sarutobi merely shook his head at the antics of Naruto's Pokemon.

The man shakily got to his feet and said while glaring at Naruto "Keep a leash on that monster of yours you brat."

Naruto was instantly on his feet as he glared at the special Jounin and said "You take that back. Bulbasaur is a Pokemon, not a monster."

The man sneered and said "Or you will do what? But it is no surprise that you took its side. After all, those who are alike tend to stay together."

"Ebisu!" Sarutobi said sharply, ready to properly reprimand his shinobi but never got the chance. Two flashes of light later, Ebisu was on the floor with Squirtle on his chest having tackled him and Charmander had its claws next to his face ready to use its scratch attack.

"Squirtle, Charmander. Leave him alone, he's not worth it."

Squirtle got off of the special Jounin's chest and joined Charmander as the two Pokemon walked over to Naruto who had Bulbasaur in his arms having apparently caught it when it came out of the Pokeball a second time. Said Pokemon was scowling at Ebisu looking as if it would like nothing better than to shoot a razor leaf barrage at the man. The only thing that was preventing it from doing just that was the fact that Naruto had a hand on its head trying to calm it down as it rubbed the spot between its ears.

Sarutobi sighed and said "Naruto, in the future, please keep your Pokemon from taking such actions against your comrades." Naruto nodded and said he would do his best while Ebisu sneered thinking he had won. That instantly changed when Sarutobi said "Ebisu, I am disappointed in you. I would have thought you would have been a bit more open minded. But it seems I was wrong. Naruto's Pokemon are no more monsters than the Inuzuka's canine partners. Now apologize to young Naruto here."

Ebisu bowed to Sarutobi before he turned to Naruto. Gritting his teeth, he bowed again, but no where near as low as the first time and ground out "My apologies Uzumaki. It will not happen again."

Naruto nodded and said "Apology accepted." Taking his hand off of Bulbasaur's head, he took its Pokeball from his belt where he had placed it after Bulbasaur had returned the first time and gave the return command. Once Bulbasaur was back in its Pokeball, Naruto did the same with his other two partners before bowing to the Hokage and dismissed himself and left the room.

Once he was out of sight, Sarutobi began talking to Ebisu about how he shouldn't judge Naruto for his burden. As this was going on, the kid from before had snuck out and began trailing the blond.

(All right guys, a quick note. I know some of you are wondering why Naruto's Pokemon would fly off the handle like that. The answer is that they are still young. They would be the equivalent of a regular ten year old mentally. So when they are insulted, or their trainer is threatened the first thing that pops in their minds is to take the perpetrator head on.)

Scene Change: Training Field Behind Hokage Monument

Naruto's Pokemon rejoined the outside world in flashes of red light as he summoned them out of their Pokeballs.

"I thought you guys might want to blow off some steam." Naruto said as he created about ten shadow clones who began taking out scrolls and unsealing targets from them.

The Pokemon nodded before they began letting loose with their most destructive attacks that they could use so far as Naruto's shadow clones kept unsealing targets with another clone that had been given about a quarter of Naruto's overall chakra stores was replacing the "target" clones whenever they ran out. The targets ranged from standing targets to targets that were thrown. (Think of a Frisbee or the discs that you shoot at with a gun.) Barrages of razor sharp leaves flew through the air accompanied by streams of water and small fireballs as the three Pokemon tore through the targets.

As this was going on, the original was having a spar with another shadow clone that had had a little more chakra than the replacing clone so that it could take more than one hit. The kid from the registration office was meanwhile watching them in awe at what was going on.

"Can I help you?"

The kid jumped about a foot in the air and yelled in surprise before turning around and saw the blond behind him. The kid looked between the blond who surprised him and the other that was currently still sparring and said "You, but, I thought,"

The blond chuckled and said "I'm a clone kid. And you really need to work on your stealth skills, I could tell you were following me the whole time. And your awareness needs a lot of work as well, I've been behind you for a full minute. Now was there something you want or do you make it a habit of following newly registered Gennin?"

The kid took an uncertain look as he pointed to the three Pokemon who were still tearing through the targets without any sign of stopping soon and said "I was just wondering where those three came from. I've never seen anything like them before."

The clone cocked its head wondering what it should tell the kid before it shrugged and said "You may want to sit down kid, this could take a while."

Scene Change: Day of Gennin Orientation

As Naruto walked through the gate to the Academy, he thought about the conversation his clone had with the kid. After Naruto had explained where the Pokemon had came from to the kid who later introduced himself as Konohamaru, the two had began talking about other things. One thing lead to another until Naruto decided that he would try to help the kid out a little. And so Naruto had given him a scroll that he had written down minor chakra exercises in and told him to come back when he finished with them, had any trouble, or just wanted to talk.

And then Ebisu had shown up. Naruto frowned as he remembered how his Pokemon had almost tried to send the special Jounin to the hospital. It was only Naruto's commands that kept them from flying off the handle. Powerful they may be, but they were still mentally children. After all, being sealed in a Pokeball by yourself for who knows how long didn't really encourage mental growth.

Naruto wasn't sure how he himself had kept himself from attacking the man when he began insulting them, but had finally just got fed up with him and decided that he deserved a good pranking.

Naruto chuckled as he remembered the look on Ebisu's face when Naruto put an E rank Genjutsu over the elite Jounin. The man had found himself in a strip club with some of the dancers coming over to him and began giving him lap dances. The man had had a nose bleed so big that it actually shot him back a few feet.

When Konohamaru had asked him how he did that, Naruto had just shook his head and told him to ask him again after he had gotten the first chakra control exercises done.

Naruto was pulled out of his thoughts when he walked through the door to his classroom and heard "Hey Dead Last, what are you doing here? Don't you know only those who graduated could come here today?"

Naruto looked at the boy who had said that, the Inuzuka clan heir, Kiba, and tapped his headband and said "I did pass. Turns out that the reason that I couldn't do the nasic clone jutsu properly was because I had way too much chakra to ever be able to do it. So the Old Man showed me a different type of clone that took a lot more chakra to make and passed me when I showed that I could do it."

The rest of the class began muttering to themselves wondering which clone jutsu the blond could have been taught. Naruto did his best to ignore them and simply took a seat in the middle row. As he sat down, two girls suddenly got trapped in the doorway as they both tried to get inside before the other. Arguing amongst themselves, the two finally fell down on the floor. One of them, Sakura Haruno, was able to get up first and went over to where Naruto was.

"Move it Naruto! I want to sit by Sasuke!"

Naruto looked up from where he had lowered his head on his arms and said "No need to yell at me Sakura. There's an empty seat between us."

Sakura blushed from embarrassment and slipped past Naruto to sit in said seat while muttering about Dead Lasts. As this was going on, the rest of the class was murmuring again wondering at how the blond spoke to his crush.

Before the blond could be bothered by questions though, Iruka came in and got everyone's attention. It was time to find out who the teams were going to be.


	3. The Six Man Team

3. The Six Man Team

Iruka looked over the children that he had taught for four years, some even longer. He knew that some wouldn't be able to make the cut and it tore him inside knowing that he could only do so much to prepare them for what was outside of the village walls. Still, he couldn't help but feel pride at the sight in front of him.

The pride grew when he saw his blond former student who was sitting in the middle. Iruka noticed Naruto's new wardrobe and couldn't help but approve of it. Even with the kill me orange jumpsuit, Naruto had been a master of stealth when doing his pranks. Now wearing clothes that were more along the lines of what shinobi of Chunnin rank and higher wore, Iruka would have bet good money that he and everyone else would be hard pressed to find him if he ever wanted to stay hidden.

Getting his thoughts back in line, Iruka began his graduation speech that he always gave before calling out teams. In his seat, Naruto half listened to it as he tried to guess who would be with who. Ino, Shikamaru, and Chouji were obvious. He had heard stories about their fathers and like the saying went, if it's not broke, don't fix it. The others were a bit harder.

Most of the students were simply generalized in their talents. One team that he thought might come out would be Hinata, Kiba, and Shino. Those three each came from clans that in some form or another were trackers. Therefore it would make sense to put them together in such a team.

Where the blond himself would go was anybody's guess in his opinion. A week ago he was the 'dead last' hiding behind a mask. Now, he was someone who had almost as good chakra control as Sakura and while no where near as good as Shikamaru's, a highly strategic mind. If he had to guess though, he would say he would be put into a heavy assault team since with some help from his partners and his shadow clones he could do a lot of damage in a wide area. Naruto perked up and gave his former teacher his full attention when he heard his name being called.

Team 7 will be Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno, and Sasuke Uchiha. Your Jounin sensei will be Kakashi Hatake."

Sakura drooped down hearing who her first teammate was and then shouted out something about true love conquering all when she heard she was going to be on Sasuke's team to the chagrin of most of the other girls.

Sasuke hadn't shown any signs of hearing Iruka except to frown slightly before continuing his current brooding session.

Naruto mentally groaned. If it was anyone else he would have no trouble just throwing his mask away. But since it was those two, he was going to be having headaches at least five times a day. He never actually cared about Sakura in any shape or form. He just chose someone who he knew would never accept him and did what he did to add to the mask. When Naruto dropped it, there was going to be hell from her, he was sure. And Sasuke would be even worse. The kid was obsessed with power to get his revenge. As soon as he saw what Naruto's partners were capable of, he would demand Naruto to hand them over he was sure of it.

And there was no way in hell that was going to happen. Naruto was not about to do that, and there was nothing that could make him. Those three were his partners and no one else's. He was the only one that knew how to work with them and knew what to expect from them. Add to the fact that Sasuke wouldn't give a damn about taking proper care of them and just pushing them to and past the breaking point to try and get them as strong as possible as fast as possible, and you had confrontation written all over the situation.

Naruto absent mindedly noticed that he had been right about the last two teams before Iruka told them to take an hour break for lunch and then come back to meet their senseis.

After he left the classroom, Naruto found himself a secluded spot in the park next to the academy and let his Pokemon out. As the three appeared in the usual flashes of light, Naruto sat down under the tree he was standing by and unsealed four apples. Taking one of them he said "Enjoy guys." before taking a bite. The three Pokemon each grabbed an apple for themselves before taking their own positions and began eating. Squirtle leaned against Naruto as Charmander sat close to him on their trainer's other side. Bulbasaur had grabbed its apple with a vine and went under another tree to eat by himself.

Naruto frowned as he watched one of his partners walk to the other tree before shaking his head and going back to his lunch. Being by himself for so long had made Bulbasaur a bit of a loner when it came to doing anything with the others besides training. Naruto had tried to get the grass type to join the other two Pokemon whenever he let them out just to relax but so far there was no luck.

Charmander had also watched Bulbasaur move to be by himself and looked sad that his friend wasn't joining them. Squirtle saw this and popped the whole apple into his mouth and chewed twice before swallowing. He then hopped over Naruto and walked around Charmander before heading to Bulbasaur. Naruto and Charmander watched as the small turtle Pokemon tried to get their teammate to join them. After a short conversation between the two, Squirtle sighed and walked over to the other two and shrugged. Charmander looked down before he began eating his own apple.

Squirtle meanwhile climbed into Naruto's lap and laid down prompting Naruto to begin rubbing its head. Naruto smiled down at it and began rubbing the turtle's head with his free hand as he continued eating his apple with his other. Squirtle closed its eyes as Naruto's rubbing lulled it into a doze. Charmander finished his own apple and leaned against Naruto who began rubbing his head as well after he had finished eating. Bulbasaur watched the scene and smiled before finishing his apple and closed his eyes as well. Charmander soon followed as all three Pokemon enjoyed the relaxing moment while Naruto smiled at them.

Scene Change: Academy Classroom

Naruto walked back into the classroom with his partners back in their Pokeballs. He thought it best that he not draw attention to them since it would only lead to awkward questions from his classmates.

"Finally came back eh Dead Last? Any later and you would have been late to meet your sensei." (Oh the irony of that statement.)

Naruto looked over to Ino who was sitting with her new team like everyone else and shrugged before taking the empty seat in the back corner before leaning back and placing his legs on the desk and closed his eyes. This brought muttering to the others who were wondering why Naruto hadn't tried to sit as close to Sakura as possible. Before anyone could ask him though, the senseis began coming in calling out their teams.

Two Hours Later

Sakura groaned and said "Where the hell is he? Its been two hours!"

Naruto merely opened one of his eyes before closing it again. The rest of the team Jounin had appeared for their teams within minutes of each other leaving only team 7 to wait for their sensei. Naruto would have set up a prank for their Jounin teacher for being so late but was enjoying the peace and quiet for as long as possible.

A couple of minutes later, the door slid open and someone said "Yo. Team 7?" Naruto opened his eye again and looked at the man that stepped into the room as Sakura shouted out "You're late!"

Naruto rose an eyebrow and opened his other eye as he noticed the hair and immediately recognized the man. There was only one person that Naruto had seen in the village that had silver hair that defied gravity like the man currently in front of him.

'Dog? When did he leave Anbu?'

Said person studied the three kids in front of him for a moment and said "Hm, My first impression of you guys is, you're boring." Sakura face vaulted before he continued "Meet me on the roof in five minutes."

Kakashi then disappeared in a poof of smoke. Naruto stood up from his seat and stretched before climbing down the stairs and headed to the door. Once there, he turned around and looked at his teammates who hadn't moved yet and said "You coming?"

Sakura shook herself and rushed over to the doorway while Sasuke stood up and began walking over as well. Naruto meanwhile shook his head and thought 'It's going to be SO much fun working with these guys.'

Once everyone was on the roof, Kakashi looked up from his book at his new students who had sat down in a row in front of him with Sakura between the two boys. Closing his book, he placed in in his pouch and said "Ok. Why don't you introduce yourselves and tell me a bit about yourselves."

Sakura looked confused and said "Um sensei, what do you mean?"

Kakashi shrugged and said "You know, your likes, dislikes, dreams, and hobbies."

"Um why don't you go first to show us how it's done." Sakura said causing the three males to wonder how this girl was the smartest in the class.

Kakashi gave a small sigh and said "Very well. My name is Kakashi Hatake. I have a few likes and dislikes. My hobbies aren't really something you need to know about. And as for dreams, well, that's none of your business."

The three Gennin sweat dropped and thought 'All he told us was his name, and we knew that already.'

Kakashi then pointed to Sakura and said "All right pinkie, your turn."

Sakura glared at the nickname but went anyway. "My name is Sakura Haruno. I like (Looks at Sasuke and blushes.) My dislikes are Ino-pig and Naruto! (Cue mock pout from Naruto earning a raised eyebrow from Kakashi who was the only one to notice it.) My hobbies, well um, you don't need to know those. (Another blush giving the others a good idea what those hobbies were.) My dream? Well, (Looks at Sasuke again and blushes before giving a squeal earning a sweat drop from Naruto and Kakashi.)"

"Right," Kakashi said before pointing to Sasuke and said "You with the duck butt hairdo, your turn."

Naruto burst out laughing as Sasuke and Sakura glared at the man. Sasuke then said "My name is Sasuke Uchiha. I don't have many likes, and many dislikes. I don't have any hobbies. I don't have a dream, that's just a word. What I do have is an ambition. To restore my clan, and, to kill a certain man."

The thoughts that came from the others were as follows"

'He is so cool.'

'I expected as much.'

'Ch, emo.'

Kakashi then pointed to Naruto and said "All right blondie, your turn."

Naruto shrugged at the name and said "My name's Naruto Uzumaki. My likes are training, pulling pranks, ramen, and my partners. My dislikes are anyone who doesn't give others a chance. My hobbies are training with my partners and enjoying time with them. My dream, well two dreams actually, is to become Hokage and also become a Master Trainer."

Kakashi rose an eyebrow and thought 'He's an interesting one. His profile said that he is a hyperactive kid but it looks like I was right all those years ago when I thought he was wearing a mask. Still, I wonder who these partners are and what he means by a Master Trainer.'

Sakura and Sasuke were looking at Naruto in confusion and Sakura asked "What partners are you talking about Naruto? And what the hell is a Master Trainer?"

Naruto merely smirked and said "You'll find out eventually."

Kakashi decided to get the conversation moving again and said "All right then. Now that that is out of the way, we can talk about more important things. Like the final exam that I am going to give you."

"But sensei, we already passed the final exam." Sakura said in confusion while the two boys were thinking similar thoughts.

Kakashi shrugged and said "Well yes, you passed the academy final exam. But lets face it, that was easy. It merely tested you to see if you had what it took to earn the right to be tested. Any one can memorize a few test questions. My test however, well see if you are actually ready to enter the world of the ninja or if you need to go back to the academy. Oh and I should probably tell you that the test has a 66% failure rate. Which means that two of you will most likely fail."

The three Gennin's eyes widened as Kakashi continued "Be at training ground 7 at seven o'clock tomorrow morning for the final exam. Oh, and don't eat breakfast, you'll just throw it up later. Well see ya."

Kakashi then disappeared in a poof of smoke leaving the three kids who were still in minor shock. Naruto shook his head and stood up before walking to the roof's exit and headed to his training field. He had a final to prepare for.

Training Ground 7 7 o'clock

Training ground 7 was one of the more general training grounds. It had a clearing with three training logs when you first came in surrounded by a forest with a small river running through it. Spread throughout the training ground was a small number of smaller clearings.

Naruto was currently leaning up against the back of one of the logs taking a nap while waiting for everyone else when his new teammates showed up. Sakura and Sasuke reached the training ground at roughly the same time. Looking around, they headed to the training logs and began waiting for their teammate and sensei while Sakura tried to have a conversation with Sasuke.

On the other side of the logs, Naruto opened an eye before closing it and going back to sleep. If yesterday was any indication he had a couple of hours until Kakashi appeared.

Two hours later, Kakashi appeared in a poof of smoke. Eye smiling, he said "Yo."

"You're late!" Sakura screamed out making everybody wince.

Kakashi rubbed the back of his head and said "Sorry about that. I'm afraid I got lost on the road of life."

"You're lying!" Sakura shouted even louder.

Kakashi shrugged and said "Well anyway, its time to get started on your exam."

Sakura gained a confused look and said "But sensei, Naruto isn't here yet."

"Who isn't here yet?" Naruto asked as he walked around the log surprising the two Gennin.

"Where were you for the past two hours?" Sakura shouted out.

Naruto winced and dug his pinkie in one of his ears and said "Behind the log taking a nap."

Sakura and Sasuke stared while Kakashi shook his head and said "If you two didn't notice your teammate all this time then I don't think you two will be able to pass this exam."

Sakura and Sasuke glared at their teacher while Naruto simply leaned against the training post. Kakashi ignored the glares and took out an alarm clock causing Sakura to twitch.

"Are you telling me that you had a clock and you were still late?" Sakura asked dangerously.

Kakashi eye smiled and said "That's right." Earning a face vault from Sakura before he placed the clock on the log Naruto was leaning against before walking back in front of the three Gennin and took out two bells on strings and tied them to his belt.

"This is your final exam. You must get these bells from me before noon. Any of you who doesn't well be tied to one of those poles behind you and watch while I eat my lunch."

'That's why he told us not to eat breakfast.' Sakura and Sasuke thought while their stomachs growled. The three then looked over at Naruto whose stomach hadn't growled. Naruto looked at them and said "What?"

Kakashi rose an eyebrow and said "Naruto, you didn't by any chance forget my order about not having breakfast did you?"

Naruto shrugged and said "Technically you gave us a suggestion. But to answer your question, no, I didn't have breakfast. I'm just used to going without food for longer periods of time than most."

Kakashi mentally frowned at what that statement implied while Sasuke and Sakura completely dismissed it.

Shrugging, Kakashi said "Well any way, I should also tell you that whoever doesn't get a bell well be sent back to the academy."

The three Gennin's eyes widened and Sakura said "But sensei, there's only two bells."

Kakashi eye smiled and said "That's right Sakura. So at least one of you will be going back regardless."

Sakura and Naruto paled for different reasons while Sasuke's eyes narrowed as the three began thinking.

'I have to pass. This is a test of love!'-Sakura

'No way am I going back to the academy. Good thing I have a couple of aces up my sleeve.'-Naruto

'I have to pass. I cannot get strong enough to beat him in the academy.'-Sasuke

Kakashi noticed the looks on their faces and mentally grinned before he said "All right then, lets get started. Oh and come at me with intent to kill. Otherwise you will never get a bell. Ok, ready, begin!"

The three Gennin jumped away from Kakashi and hid themselves in the forest.

Kakashi looked around and found Sakura and Sasuke where they were hiding and thought 'They know how to hide fairly well for Gennin it seems. But where's Naruto?'

A barrage of projectiles suddenly came at Kakashi from the side causing him to jump to out of the way. To his surprise, he noticed that said projectiles were actually leaves. He got an even bigger shock as the leaves kept traveling and tore through the trees on the other side of the clearing.

Kakashi looked back to where the leaves had originated but didn't see anything in the woods. Sakura and Sasuke both stared from their hiding spots and wondered just what the hell the dead last had just done.

With Naruto, he frowned from his spot in a tree. Looking down at the ground where Bulbasaur was, he said "Well that was disappointing. Do you think you could get him with a wider spread?"

Bulbasaur looked up at its trainer and somehow seemed to shrugged before looking back at its target and let loose with another barrage.

Back with Kakashi, he spotted another barrage heading his way spread out and started dodging again. As more leaves came, he started traveling towards the point of origin hoping to find out what Naruto was doing to shoot the leaves. However, by the time he got there, nothing was there. Looking down at the ground, he noticed a set of footprints that confused him. It looked like a small four legged animal that had three toes on the front and a round back.

A bit farther in the forest, Naruto studied his opponent as he clipped Bulbasaur's Pokeball back to his belt. It was apparent that Naruto wouldn't be able to get the bells by hitting the silver haired Jounin with Bulbasaur's ranged attack and Naruto doubted that its vine whip or leech seed would have any more success. It was time to switch tactics.

Kakashi went back to the clearing after about a minute of looking for Naruto and whatever kind of animal was with him. He was about to go after the other two when a voice spoke up behind him.

"And where do you think you're going?"

Kakashi turned around and saw Naruto standing about ten feet behind him with his arms crossed. 'He's good. I barely noticed him before he spoke up.' Kakashi thought hiding his surprise and said "You're a bit odd, you know that right?"

Naruto shrugged and said "So? Even if I am, I'm getting one of those bells."

Kakashi rose his visible eyebrow and said "Is that so? I find that hard to believe considering you were the dead last of your class."

He then reached into his pouch making Naruto tense getting ready to get out of the way of whatever weapon his teacher pulled out. When said teacher pulled out his orange book that he had been reading before the introductions, Naruto face vaulted.

Getting back up, he said "What are you doing reading your book during a fight?"

Kakashi opened the book and said "Well I want to know what happens next obviously. Don't worry though. I assure you, I can still take you on with one hand."

Naruto frowned before he crossed his hands. Six clones suddenly appeared in poofs of smoke making Kakashi's eye to widen slightly before Naruto said "Get him!"

The clones launched themselves at Kakashi who began dodging and blocking the clones attacks while Naruto hung back looking for any openings in how the Jounin fought.

As this was going on Kakashi said "Ninja arts 101, Lesson 1 Taijutsu."

Right after he finished talking, Kakashi started tearing the clones apart. Once they were gone, he got into a relaxed position and said "I hope that wasn't the best you could do. If so, then I'm afraid you have no chance of getting a bell."

Naruto frowned again as he went over the fight in his mind analyzing not only what he had seen but what the clones themselves had observed during their fight. Naruto then crossed his fingers again. This time only four clones appeared making Kakashi wonder how good his chakra control was before the clones rushed him.

Kakashi punched the first clone as it came at him. Expecting it to dispel, Kakashi instead saw a brief flash of blue causing his eye to widen before the clone exploded. Kakashi jumped back barely avoiding the explosion before the other three launched out of the smoke cloud and landed in a triangle formation around the Jounin with only a couple of feet between each clone.

Grinning evilly they said at the same time "Boom."

Kakashi's eye widened even further as the clones exploded rocking the ground with him in the middle. In the forest, Sakura's eyes widened thinking that Naruto had killed their sensei while Sasuke's narrowed as he angrily thought that he should have that kind of power and not the dead last.

Naruto meanwhile was looking towards the crater he had formed waiting for the smoke to dissipate and keeping the rest of his senses on alert just in case Kakashi had gotten away. As the smoke finally cleared enough for Naruto to see, he saw a torched log in the crater where Kakashi had been.

"Ninja rule 23: Always have a log nearby to substitute with."

Naruto turned around and saw Kakashi at the edge of the forest. In her spot, Sakura breathed a sigh of relief. Kakashi meanwhile narrowed his eye and said "I know I said come at me with intent to kill Naruto, but don't you think that was a bit overkill?"

Naruto shrugged and said "Not really. Like you just said, you told us to fight with intent to kill."

Kakashi frowned before he rushed Naruto who began backpedaling as he did his best to not let the silver haired Jounin land a blow on him. However, it wasn't long before Kakashi got behind him in a crouching position with his hands in the tiger seal.

When Sasuke saw this, he shouted out "Naruto, get out of there! He's going to use a fire jutsu!"

(Anyone actually know why Sasuke would say that in canon? I would have thought he wouldn't care about the dead last getting barbequed.)

Naruto's eyes widened but before he could jump out of the way, Kakashi rammed his hands forward into Naruto's behind and said "Hidden Leaf Hidden Technique: Thousand Years of Death!"

Naruto's eyes screwed up before he was launched into the air with a yell before landing in the river. Sakura and Sasuke were meanwhile staring with their jaws dropped trying to figure out how the hell that was a village secret technique.

In the river, Naruto growled and thought 'That does it. This guy is so going down.' Reaching down to his belt, he pulled out a Pokeball and pressed the button twice. It expanded before opening releasing its occupant.

"Well that takes care of him. Now then, lets see how the other two do." Kakashi said to himself as he began walking towards the other two. He had only taken a couple of steps though when a stream of water shot out of the river and slammed into him. Or at least that's what the two dry Gennin thought until the same log from before appeared in Kakashi's place with the Jounin back in the middle of the blast area.

Before Kakashi could do anything though, two figures launched themselves out of the river and appeared in front of him. One figure could easily be identified as Naruto, but the other figure was something that the Jounin had never seen before.

Kakashi studied the blue turtle in front of him before looking at Naruto and said "I take it this is one of your partners you mentioned."

Naruto smiled and said "That's right."

Kakashi cocked his head and said "Would it be right to assume that you had another partner launch those leaves earlier?"

Naruto smirked and said "You're two for two sensei, but I'm afraid I don't have time for 20 questions. Squirtle, Bubble Beam!"

The small turtle Pokemon opened its mouth shooting out a stream of fast traveling bubbles at the Jounin who jumped out of the way not wanting to take a chance even if they were bubbles. Good thing he did too since when the bubbles floated down to the ground, they burst in miniature explosions of air.

Squirtle kept launching the streams as Naruto took the other two Pokeballs from his belt and threw them in the air. The two balls opened and shot their beams to the ground a few feet on either side of Squirtle revealing Bulbasaur on its left and Charmander on its right.

The other three shinobi's eyes widened at the sight of the other two as their Pokeballs returned to Naruto's hands. Putting them back on his belt, he said "Squirtle, keep it up! Bulbasaur Razor Leaf, Charmander, Ember!"

Squirtle opened its mouth again and fired more streams of bubbles at the Jounin while Charmander followed suit with small fireballs launching themselves from the fire lizard's mouth. While the two bipedal Pokemon were launching their attacks from their mouths, Bulbasaur was launching leaves out of both sides of its bulb and sending them as fast as possible towards the Jounin.

Kakashi was forced to dodge the attacks. As the three Pokemon worked in tandem to box him in, Naruto threw a single kunai and shuriken making Kakashi wonder what the blond was planning before the blond ran through a quick sequence of hand signs turning the two throwing weapons into fifty each.

Kakashi actually cursed as he jumped even further back and began blocking the weapons with his own kunai. When he landed his back was against a tree trunk. Sasuke saw this as a chance to launch his own attack and sent his own brace of shuriken at the man.

The tools pierced the man's skin before he traded places with another log. Sasuke's eyes widened and he took off through the woods trying to get away from his blown cover spot. As this was happening, Naruto frowned and tried to figure out how to track the man down.

He then began forming hand signs and thought 'I'm glad I figured out how to do this properly, transform!'

Smoke covered Naruto as his partners watched. As it dispersed, Sakura's eyes bugged out when she saw what the blond had transformed into.

Naruto was now standing on four legs and was covered in white fur. But what really caught Sakura's attention was the nine tails that were behind the albino fox.

(No Naruto can't just turn into a Pokemon and use its attacks. Not yet anyway. Maybe after the time skip. He does get heightened senses though.)

The Ninetails closed its eyes and began breathing through its nose trying to pick up the silver Jounin's scent. But before he could, a shout came from the forest. All three Pokemon and the transformed human's head snapped towards the sound before taking off towards it at a run.

Sakura meanwhile had heard the shout as well and took off thinking 'That was Sasuke just now! Did Kakashi get him? No, he couldn't, Not Sasuke!'

She spotted a flash of silver and stopped hiding behind some bushes trying to keep low. A voice suddenly spoke behind her.

"Hey, Sakura."

Sakura whirled around and saw Kakashi before a whirlwind of leaves surrounded her. When it cleared, Sakura looked around frantically seeing no one. She then heard another voice that she recognized causing her to whirl around.

"Sakura."

Sakura turned with a smile and shouted out "Sasuke!" before her eyes widened in horror. Standing in front of her, Sasuke was panting while covered in blood with some kunai and shuriken still stuck in him.

Sasuke walked towards her and said in a pained voice "Sakura, help me. Please." before collapsing. Sakura backed up with her hand going to her mouth before she screamed and fainted.

Kakashi looked at her and said "Ninja arts 101 Lesson 2 Genjutsu. Hm, I wonder if I went a little overboard? Her file said that she was a Genjutsu type. Oh well, better go find Naruto. No telling what that kid well come up with if I leave him alone for too long."

Said blond and his partners were currently running through the trees before they came upon a clearing smaller than the one at the gate. Coming to it, they found the back of a head with duck butt hair sticking out of a hole in the ground. The four walked slowly over to it looking out for Kakashi before moving to the front.

Seeing Sasuke's scowling face, Squirtle burst into laughter and began rolling around holding the front of its shell. The other three snickered as well.

Any fear Sasuke had from seeing a nine tailed fox disappeared and he scowled as he said "Stop laughing! Don't just stand there, go get that Dead Last partner of yours and get me out of here!"

The three Pokemon stopped laughing and glared at the emo as the Ninetails said "Geeze Sasuke, calm down. You gotta admit, when you think about it, its actually funny."

Sasuke's eyes widened as a cloud of smoke surrounded the fox before dispersing revealing the blond. Naruto looked at Sasuke and cocked his head in thought before creating a shadow clone. Sasuke was about to ask what the dead last was doing before the clone replaced himself with Sasuke and then dispelled itself from the position in the hole.

Sasuke stared at the spot the clone was trying to figure out how a clone could do a replacement with another person. He suddenly snapped out of it when Naruto practically shouted in his ear.

"Sasuke!"

Said emo jerked and glared at the blond and said "What the hell was that for Dead Last?"

Naruto's eyes narrowed and he said "It was to get your attention. I had asked you a question and you weren't listening. I had said that I don't think any of us can take Kakashi alone even with my partners helping me. Our best bet is for us as well as Sakura to work together as a team to get the bells. Once we do, we can decide who gets a bell and who doesn't. Now are you going to help me convince Sakura or not?"

Sasuke studied the blond in front of him for a minute going over everything that had happened so far in his mind before reluctantly nodding.

Naruto nodded as well before transforming again. To Sasuke's surprise however, Naruto didn't turn into a Ninetails. Instead he looked like a dog whose head came just above Sasuke's knees, with dominantly red fur with black stripes as well as white fur on his chest and a white tuft on its head. (Growlithe)

Naruto took a few quick sniffs of the air before taking off in a direction with his partners following him. Sasuke hesitated for a minute before he took of after them.

Once the group had left, the air in a tree branch shimmered before revealing Kakashi who was looking towards where the group left with a smile.

"Well now, it seems Naruto understands the test even if only partially. And it seems Sasuke is willing to go along with it for now. And if those two manage to convince Sakura I may just have a team that's actually worth teaching this time."

The transformed Gennin led the group to an area close by. Getting there, they found Sakura lying on the floor in an unconscious heap. Naruto dropped his transformation and knelt down next to her.

Squirtle cocked his head and said something in his specie's language earning a wtf look from Sasuke as Naruto chuckled and said "No, he didn't kill her Squirtle, she's just under a Genjutsu. RELEASE!"

Sakura stirred and opened her eyes. Looking around, she spotted Sasuke and her eyes widened before she glomped the Uchiha heir and began crying about how she was so glad he wasn't a bloody pincushion earning raised eyebrows from everyone else.

Naruto shook his head and said "As much as I'd like to ask just what you saw while you were under Sakura, we've got things to do and little time to do it. Sasuke, can you please explain to her what we figured out about the test so far?"

Sasuke shot a look that clearly said "Do I have to?" earning a nod from the blond. Sighing, Sasuke began explaining what Naruto had told him.

Kakashi was currently waiting in the main field. He had no doubt that Naruto and Sasuke would be able to get Sakura to help them. If there is one thing you could depend on a fan girl for, they would agree to do practically anything for their source of affection So for now he was simply waiting for them to come up with a plan. As he waited, his thoughts drifted towards one of his students in particular. Yes, students. It was obvious that they could work together when needed, so they already passed. He was just curious to see what they would come up with.

Truth be told though, Kakashi was a little afraid what Naruto WOULD come up with. Kakashi had been surprised time after another when dealing with him ever since the test started. Able to use shadow clones and making them explode, knew the other shadow clone techniques for weapons, and the fact that he obviously knew how to work with his partners well. Add to the fact that he could apparently turn into a few of them himself and you had one dangerous kid. Never mind the fact that Naruto was the king of pranksters in the village. He was going to have to have a talk with the blond later though. He needed answers to the questions that popped up from the blonde's actions today.

Kakashi was brought out of his thoughts by a brace of shuriken being launched at him. As he jumped out of the way, a light blue and yellow blur came at him close to the ground before jumping into the air. As it got close to him, a cloud of smoke appeared before Naruto blew out of it and attempted to land a punch on the Jounin.

Kakashi quickly diverted the blonde's path and pushed him away not wanting to risk it being an exploding shadow clone. As soon as Kakashi landed, he heard a roar coming from behind. Jumping out of the way of the fireball and trying to find Sasuke, he was too distracted to see the flash of light from Naruto's position before two vines wrapped around him.

Kakashi's eye widened as he followed the path of the vines to the grass Pokemon from before that was in front of its trainer smirking at him.

Kakashi sighed as Bulbasaur lowered him to the ground and Naruto walked over to him and grabbed the bells right before the bell rang. As it did, Sakura and Sasuke walked out of the woods with a smile and small smirk respectively.

Bulbasaur let Kakashi go and he walked over to the clock and shut it off. Turning to Naruto he said "Congratulations Naruto, you were able to get both bells. Now then, who are you going to give a bell to?"

Sakura got a nervous look and Sasuke got nervous on the inside as well although he was hiding it better. So the two were understandably surprised when Naruto said "Both" and tossed both bells to them making their eyes widen.

Kakashi rose an eyebrow and said "So you are choosingto be the one to go back even though you were the one to get both bells?"

Naruto shrugged and said "Might as well. One more year won't hurt me and these two were the best this year. They deserve to go forward, not back."

Sakura and Sasuke gaped before Sasuke stepped up and said "No way Dead Last. Take my bell. Another year won't hurt me since I'll just be Rookie of the Year again."

"No take my bell." Sakura said as she tried to give it to Naruto. "I didn't really do anything to deserve it. It was your plan and you and Sasuke did most of the work. I should be the one to go back to the academy."

"That won't be necessary." The three looked to Kakashi who was eye smiling and said "You all pass."

Sakura and Sasuke's eyes widened as Naruto mentally smirked and thought 'I thought so.'

"What do you mean we all pass? You said only two could pass." Sakura said.

"Simply misdirection." Kakashi said before continuing "The test was never about actually getting the bells. It was about putting aside your differences and working as a group. I must admit you three had me worried at first but you came through in the end. Congratulations. But before you celebrate, let me show you something."

He walked over to a stone monument that the three now official Gennin hadn't noticed before.

"You see this stone? This stone holds the names of ninja who are considered heroes of the leaf. They are honored as much as the Hokages."

Sakura and Sasuke's eyes widened at this while Naruto grinned and said "Then I guess it will have my name on it someday."

Kakashi shook his head and said "I honestly hope that is not the case Naruto."

Naruto narrowed his eyes and said "And why might that be?" in a dangerous tone of voice that his teammates had never heard from him before.

Kakashi looked him straight in the eye and said "Because this monument honors those ninja who were KIA."

Sakura and Sasuke flinched while Naruto's face relaxed as he realized that he had found someone else who cared about him. Naruto's face then got a determined look and he said "Well I'd rather be on that monument and killed in action than dying in my sleep at some old age. What is the point of becoming Hokage or even a ninja of this village if you are not willing to give everything you have for it?"

At his side, Bulbasaur nodded and unseen by everyone else, his other two partners nodded as well inside their Pokeballs. Everyone else's eyes widened before Kakashi eye smiled and said "Well said Naruto. I have to go report to the Hokage now that the test is over, but before I go, let me just say one more thing. Those who break the rules are trash. But those who abandon their friends are worse then trash. With that being said, meet here tomorrow at eight for missions. Also, congratulations on becoming the first ever six man team. Well, see ya."

And with that, he disappeared in a cloud of smoke leaving his new team to celebrate their accomplishment.


	4. Kakashi's UneaseDRanks

4. Kakashi's Unease/D-Ranks

Hokage's Office

Kakashi appeared in a poof of smoke in the Hokage's office. Around him were the other Jounin who had tested this year's graduates. In the back was Iruka who was leaning against the wall next to the door.

"Now that everyone's here, we can begin." Sarutobi said earning chuckles from the other Jounin. Nodding to the first Jounin, Sarutobi pulled out a list of the teams that had two checkboxes for each row and held a pen over the sheet. At the top of the two columns were pass and fail.

The first Jounin stepped forward and said "Team One Fail."

"Team Two Fail"

"Team Three Fail"

"Team Four Fail"

"Team Five Fail"

"Team Six Fail"

"Team Seven Pass"

Almost everyone in the room's eyes widened since Kakashi had never passed a team before. Kurenai shook her head and gave her own report.

"Team Eight Pass"

"Team Ten Pass"

Sarutobi nodded as he checked the last box before turning to the three Jounin who passed their teams and said "Very well then. Now that that is done, why don't you three tell us how they passed."

Kurenai nodded again and said "I tested my team on how well they could track me down and work together. The three worked together well with no problems."

Asuma took out a cigarette and lit it while ignoring Kurenai's glare and said "I tested my team on how well they could work together in taking my lighter from me. The team worked well when Shikamaru formulated a plan for them."

Kakashi looked up from the book that he had been reading and said "I gave my team the bell test. They had problems at first working together before one of them convinced the others to work together and was able to retrieve the bells."

"It must have been Sasuke. He was the only one on that team who actually had any skills." One of the random Jounin who had tested one of the other teams said earning agreement from the others.

"Actually, it was Naruto who did so. He was really full of surprises. Shadow Clones that could explode, those three partners of his, and the ability to use the kunai and shuriken shadow clone jutsu. He really does deserve his title of most unpredictable ninja of the Leaf."

All of the other Jounin had looks of surprise as they heard this while Iruka and Sarutobi had smirks on their faces.

Sarutobi leaned forward and said "Hm, I see. Well, I believe that's everything. Dismissed."

Scene Change: Ichiraku's

Naruto was currently eating his third bowl as he explained to the Ichiraku family how his bell test had gone. On the counter, his partners each had a bowl of ramen themselves that they were eating out of. It had been very surprising for the two when Bulbasaur had shown that it could actually use chopsticks by using its vine whip.

"And when we found him, he was buried up to his chin in the ground. Had to use a shadow clone to replace with him to get him out."

The two chuckled before the flaps over the stand parted and a voice said "One miso ramen please."

Naruto and his partners looked over at Kakashi as he took a seat next to his student while the couple got to work on the new order.

"Naruto, we need to talk." Kakashi said as soon as he was seated.

"About?" Naruto asked with a raised eyebrow.

Kakashi looked him in the eye and said "About how you knew those shadow clone techniques as well as where you got these partners of yours and more importantly learned how to transform into those other creatures. I could tell that you had actually literally transformed into them instead of just using a basic hinge and that's supposed to be impossible."

Naruto took another bite out of his ramen before shrugging as he slurped up the noodles and swallowed before saying "It's not really that big of a deal. I've always done the transformation jutsu that way. It's how I learned how to do it." Ignoring Kakashi's look of shock, he continued "As for the Shadow clone jutsu, The Old Man let me learn it and the exploding clone jutsu from the Forbidden Scroll when we made the trap for Mizuki. I learned shuriken and kunai shadow clone jutsu from the shinobi library when I went there after I graduated although I got to tell you, the librarian wasn't happy to let me through even if I did graduate. Can't say I blame him though since he probably thought I would try to do a prank in there or log forbid, do something to the books and scrolls that were in there. As for my partners, they were the second thing that the Old Man told me to look at when I took the scroll. They were in a storage seal along with the Pokedex that tested me to see if I could be their trainer."

Said partners nodded at this while Kakashi looked confused.

"What's a Pokedex?" Kakashi asked.

Naruto reached into an inside pocket in his vest and pulled the device out. Handing it to Kakashi he said "This is. It's an encyclopedia that has an entry for every single Pokemon that used to be out there. Now Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle are the only ones left. I used this to help me transform into other Pokemon. Here, look."

And with that, he reached over and flipped the device open and pushed a button that said last search. As soon as he did, a picture of a canine like creature appeared that was light blue and yellow.

"Manectric: The Discharge Pokemon. It discharges lightning from its mane. It creates a thundercloud overhead to drop lightning bolts."

Kakashi nearly dropped the Pokedex in surprise causing Naruto to chuckle and said "Yeah, I almost did that myself a couple of times. It's really helpful. There's actually entries about how each of the different Pokemon's body works. It's really impressive since there are four hundred and ninety three Pokemon in there. Whoever made it put a butt-load of work into it."

Kakashi nodded and handed the device back to Naruto who then pushed another button labeled Technical Machine and said "It can actually help my partners learn moves as well although it suggested that they learn some more of their own moves first."

Kakashi leaned over and looked at the list of moves that had TM and a number in front of each entry and said "It actually recommends stuff like that? I mean I know you said that it gives you information, but it also advises you?"

"That is correct. It is my job to guide the Trainer." Dex said causing Kakashi and the Ichirakus to jump and look at the red device in surprise.

Naruto and the three Pokemon chuckled at their expressions and Naruto said "Yeah, I forgot to mention that the Pokedex itself is practically sentient as well. It doesn't usually say anything unless it is asked a question though."

"Ah." Kakashi said as his meal was put in front of him. Picking up the bowl, the man turned away from Naruto before turning back with an empty bowl earning raised eyebrows from the others.

"Dang, there goes my record for fastest time eating a bowl of ramen you old dog." Naruto said causing the Ichirakus and Kakashi to chuckle before Kakashi stiffened as he actually took notice of what Naruto called him.

Kakashi studied Naruto for a moment and said "Funny you should call me that Naruto. I do summon dogs to help me on my missions, but how would you know that?"

Naruto smirked before turning back to his bowl and said "Who says I was talking about them?"

Kakashi frowned and said "Indeed. You wouldn't happen to have any more surprises you're hiding from me and your teammates would you Naruto?"

Naruto looked up in thought for a minute before shrugging and going back to his meal. After slurping some more noodles he said "Does trying to learn how to perform a Pokemon's attacks while transformed as one count?"

Kakashi stared before he said "Why does something tell me to fear for us all if you ever succeed?"

The three Pokemon drew attention to themselves as Squirtle said something before making an exploding motion and sound while being mimicked by Charmander who also flared his tail flame before dropping it back to its normal intensity a second later. Bulbasaur merely smirked at the two before nodding and going back to its meal.

Kakashi stared at the three and said "You're not helping to put me at ease you know."

Squirtle shrugged and said something that caused Naruto to laugh. Turning to his student, Kakashi rose an eyebrow and said "Do I even want to know what he said?"

Naruto chuckled again and said "That depends. Do you want to be able to go to sleep tonight?"

Kakashi sighed and dropped his head and said "I guess not."

Naruto finished his bowl and patted his teacher on the shoulder as he put down money for his meal and said "Don't worry sensei, I'll give you a heads up if I ever do figure out a way to do so. See you around Old Man."

"That's comforting." Kakashi sighed as his student's partners returned to their Pokeballs and he left the stand.

"Ah don't worry, Kakashi. The boy knows when not to take things too far." Teuchi said as he brought Naruto's bowls back to the kitchen to wash them.

Kakashi sighed again as he laid down money for his own meal and said "I'm afraid I'll have to take your word on that."

Scene Change: One Month Later, Forest

"Team, this is Leader, what's your status? Over."

"This is Onyx. Target spotted and I am in position."

"This is Pink. In Position."

"This is Gold. Me and Green are in position and ready to get this show on the road."

"All right Team, commence operation."

Two blurs launched themselves from around two separate trees towards a figure that was on the forest floor. The figure turned around and hissed at the two showing it to be a cat before it took off into the forest. Before it could get far though, an ape shaped figure that was about the same height as its pursuers and was brown, yellow, red, and white with black hands and feet landed in front of it. What really spooked the cat though was that the top of the figure's head seemed to be on fire.

The cat's eyes widened before a seed shot out of a nearby bush and latched onto the cat with vines that wrapped around the animal before they glowed red. Five seconds, later, the cat dropped to the floor in an unconscious heap.

Bulbasaur walked out of the bushes as Sasuke and Sakura appeared. As they did, the Infernape smirked before disappearing in a cloud of smoke to reveal Naruto. Putting a hand against the radio headset in his right ear, Naruto said "This is Gold. Target apprehended."

"Confirm target's identity."

Sakura walked over and picked up the unconscious cat after Bulbasaur absorbed its seed while Sasuke looked at its ear.

"Target confirmed to have ribbon on its right ear with Tora written on it."

"Very well. Mission: Catch Tora is a success. Return to the tower."

"Roger that." The three humans said as they began heading out of the forest with Bulbasaur walking by Naruto's side.

As they came out and were joined by Kakashi, Naruto looked down at his partner and said "You guys are life savers. Have I ever told you that?"

Bulbasaur smirked and nodded knowing what his Trainer was talking about. No matter what the mission was, Naruto's partners had always proved their worth. Whether it was helping to clear fields or cut grass with Bulbasaur's razor leaf, Charmander helping at the bakery and other places that required near constant flames, or Squirtle helping them clean out lakes and rivers, the three were always willing to help their trainer finish his mission faster.

As the team walked into the tower, Naruto recalled his Pokemon. This hadn't been the first time they had been assigned to catch Tora, and the first time Naruto had made the mistake of not recalling his Pokemon before meeting with the Daimyo's wife. Needless to say, Bulbasaur had been a bit traumatized by how the lady had nearly hugged him to death.

Five minutes later, the revived Tora was being smothered by the rather large woman as she walked out the door.

As it closed, Sarutobi shuffled through the mission scrolls and said "Well done Team 7. Now then, we have quite a few more missions you can take. There's walking the Inuzuka's dogs, babysitting one of the councilors children, we have a building that is ready for demolition that I'm sure you would enjoy Naruto and-"

"Tora, come back!"

"And catching Tora again." Sarutobi finished lamely.

Naruto rolled his eyes as he reached for a Pokeball and said "I knew I shouldn't have revived that cat."

Before Naruto could take drastic action against the demon hiding in a small cat's body though, Kakashi put a hand on his shoulder and said "Actually Lord Hokage, I believe that my team is ready for a higher mission."

The three Gennin looked at Kakashi with hopeful eyes before Iruka burst their bubble.

"But Kakashi, it's only been a month! They couldn't possibly be ready for a C-ranked mission."

Naruto turned to his former teacher and said "And why not Iruka-sensei? Sasuke and Sakura were the best in our class and me and my partners can handle practically anything Kakashi-sensei throws at us when we're training. What is babysitting a couple of kids going to prepare us for anyway? The only thing I see that preparing me for is dealing with the council when I finally claim the Old Man's hat."

Said old man chuckled as he said "He does have a point there Iruka. After all, this team does have seven members instead of the usual four. I'm sure they can handle a simple C-rank. Can you please pass them to me?"

Iruka wanted to argue the point but respected his leader's decision so he instead sighed before handing over the requested missions.

Sarutobi looked through them before stopping on a particular one. "This should do for a first C-rank. You will be escorting a very important person on their way back home."

Naruto perked up and said "Who is it? Some noble who paid the village a visit?" He then paled and said "It's not the Daimyo's wife and her pet cat is it?"

Sasuke and Sakura also paled as they heard the question while Sarutobi merely chuckled and said "No, that's for a more experienced team I'm afraid." He chuckled again as the Gennin in the room sighed in relief before continuing. "You will be escorting a bridge builder as he returns home to the Land of Waves and finishes building his bridge. You can expect bandits but that's it. Please send him in."

The door opened and an old man with gray hair and a beard with a large brim hat on his head and a towel around his shoulders. In his hand was a large sake bottle and Naruto's nose which had began getting more sensitive lately due to his progressive transforming into Pokemon with advance tracking senses picked up that the old man was probably a good way through the bottle if the smell of his breath was anything to judge by.

The man frowned and said "These are the super ninja that are supposed to be protecting me? They look like a bunch of wet nosed brats. Especially the midget. He's got the face of an imbecile. It's a joke right? You kids aren't really ninja are you?"

Naruto frowned. His size was a real touchy subject since the only thing he had really been able to afford before he graduated was ramen most of the time thanks to the villagers overcharging him for food most of the time. And while he did love ramen as much as he said he did, even he knew that it wasn't the best for him which was why he mainly only ate it at Ichiraku's now.

A gleam then appeared in Naruto's eye causing his two teammates to slowly begin backing away.

"So you think I'm a midget that's an imbecile eh?" Naruto asked as he grinned before he made a hand sign making the man nervous. Naruto was then covered in smoke which faded away to reveal a large brown bear with a yellow circle on its chest that easily stood at least a head over everybody else and whose ears were flattened against the ceiling.

The bear then walked over to the man and placed a paw on his shoulder causing him to stumble a little and said "Do you still think I'm a wet nosed brat?"

The man began sweating and said "N-no."

The Ursaring smirked and said "Good cause believe me, I can turn into things that are a whole lot worse than this, but I don't want to destroy this tower."

"All right Naruto, that's enough tormenting the client." Kakashi said not once looking up from his book. The Ursaring shrugged before it was covered in smoke revealing Naruto who walked back over to his teammates.

Sarutobi chuckled at the blonde's antics as Iruka shook his head before he said "Mr. Tazuna, I assure you that these three are the best of their year. They will be more than enough to protect you from bandits and if they do run into more than they can handle, I'm sure their Jounin instructor could handle things."

Tazuna simply nodded while keeping a nervous eye on the blond who smirked at him. Sarutobi handed Kakashi the mission scroll who opened it and read the contents.

"All right guys, this looks like it will be a two week mission tops so pack accordingly for a long term mission out of the village. We'll meet at the gates in one hour."

The three Gennin nodded before Naruto made the same hand sign again and transformed into a small bird that was almost completely brown besides its white belly. The transformed Gennin then flew out of an open window and headed to its apartment much to everyone else's surprise.

"Hm, I didn't realize he had learned how to fly when he transforms into a flying type. Did you Kakashi?" Sarutobi said as he watched the bird's form grow smaller.

"No Lord Hokage. I have to admit though, that must come in very handy."

Sasuke frowned wondering just how strong Naruto had became and just what he could and couldn't do before walking out the door to head towards his clan compound.

Village Main Gate: One Hour Later

Naruto leaned against the gate as he waited for the rest of his team to show up while his three Pokemon were out. Squirtle and Charmander were talking about how excited they were to see what was beyond the village while Bulbasaur was simply sitting by the gate enjoying the relative peace and quite. He spotted Sakura and Sasuke heading towards him and smirked as he thought of a way to take advantage of them always seeming to meet up with him at the same time.

As they got closer, he said "You know guys, I really don't see why you two don't just say you're a couple. You two always seem to arrive at team meetings together anyways."

Squirtle burst out laughing while Bulbasaur smirked. Charmander simply gave a gentle smile as Sakura blushed while Sasuke scowled and said "Don't be an idiot."

Naruto shrugged and said "Just saying." before he looked past the two and his eyes widened as well as his partners who had looked where he was when their trainer had began looking shocked at what he was seeing.

"What?" Sakura asked before looking in the right direction as well and her jaw lowered a bit.

Walking towards them was Tazuna with Kakashi beside him ON TIME for once!

"Yo." Kakashi said as he rose his hand in greeting once he was next to his students.

Naruto and Sakura put their hands together into the ram sign and simultaneously said "Release!"

Kakashi sweat dropped and said "What was that for?"

"To dispel the Genjutsu that we're obviously in. There's no way you could possibly be Kakashi-sensei." Naruto said as Sakura nodded her head in agreement.

Kakashi sighed and said "I can be on time if its important you know."

"You mean you training us isn't important?" Sakura shouted out causing everyone around them to wince.

Kakashi rubbed the back of his head and said "Why don't we just go if everybody's ready."

Naruto nodded and recalled his Pokemon drawing a confused look from Tazuna who had just noticed the basic Pokemon before walking out of the gates with everyone falling in behind him. It would take a couple of days to reach Wave at the pace they would have to take to not tire out there client. The sooner they left, the sooner they could get there.


	5. Heading To Wave

5. Heading To Wave

Scene: Five Hours Out From The Hidden Leaf Village

It had been a relatively quiet trip so far if you ignored Sakura trying to have a conversation with Sasuke every fifteen minutes. Naruto meanwhile was doing his best to stay as aware as possible. Looking up into the sky when a small shadow passed over the group, he saw one of his transformed clones fly past.

Naruto frowned when the clone dispelled a short time later sending Naruto its memories including an aerial view of a puddle on the side of the road. Kakashi saw his student stiffen and recognized the signs of information being received from a shadow clone. He frowned as well wondering why Naruto's shadow clone would dispel.

He was brought out of his thoughts though when Sakura turned to him and said "Hey Kakashi-sensei, does the Land of Waves have its own ninja?"

He was saved from answering the question by Naruto.

"Sakura would our client go all the way to the Leaf village for protection if he could just ask for help from the village in his own country?"

Sakura blushed in embarrassment as she looked down and muttered "I guess not."

Naruto shook his head before he spotted the puddle from before. Placing a hand over his Pokeballs, he began lightly tapping the three with his fingers in a code that he and Kakashi had taught his partners for when Naruto had to give them orders before they could come out. He felt the seals that Kakashi had put on the balls vibrate telling him that his partners understood what he needed from them.

Kakashi took notice of both the puddle and Naruto tapping on the Pokeballs. Coming to a decision, he prepared himself to do a quick replacement and see how his students handled the situation.

After the group had passed the puddle, two figures seemed to melt out of it before launching themselves at Kakashi and wrapped the man in a chain.

Kakashi's eye widened as he said "What?" Before the two men pulled on the chains tearing him to shreds.

"Kakashi-Sensei!" Sakura screamed out while the two men chuckled.

"One down." The figure on the left said while the other continued "Three to go."

As they made their way towards the others focusing on Tazuna, they were interrupted by three red flashes of light and a shout of "Get 'em!"

Before they could figure out what was happening, a blast of fire and a high powered stream of water slammed into the two burning the right figure and sending the second flying before coming to a sudden halt when the chain connected to the two ran taut. A seed than hit the first figure a moment before a second seed landed on the fallen figure. Vines shot out of the seeds and drained the two figures who slumped over unconscious.

Sakura, Sasuke, and Tazuna stared at Naruto who had his partners in front of him. The attacks had barely taken ten seconds from beginning to end and they hadn't even heard Naruto give any orders to his partners.

"Not bad Naruto. That was a good plan of yours." Kakashi said as he walked out of the forest and walked over to the first figure who still had a few small fires on his clothes.

As he extinguished the flames, Sakura said "Kakashi-sensei, how are you still alive? We saw you die."

Naruto shook his head again as Kakashi pointed to where he had 'died.' Instead of a bloody cut up body though, there was a cut up log.

Turning back to Naruto, he said "I know your clone told you about the ambush, but how did you know there would be two of them?"

Naruto shrugged and said "The clone transformed into a Growlithe to check it out from a distance before it dispelled. It had smelled two different people so it was pretty obvious. Didn't know that they were connected by a chain though. But it did make things easier any way."

Kakashi nodded accepting the blonde's answer.

"Wait, if you knew they were there, then why did you wait to take them out?" Tazuna asked as he tried not to become sick by the sight of the badly burnt figure. Sakura was having similar problems since this was the first time she had seen someone in such a state.

"Well, I wanted to see how my students handled themselves for one thing although it looks like Naruto had other ideas. Also, I needed to know if they were targeting us or you." Kakashi said before he gave the bridge builder a hard look and said "You told us that all we would have to worry about were some bandits. So what are two Chunnin level ninja doing targeting you for?"

Tazuna sighed before saying "Gato must have sent them."

Kakashi rose an eyebrow and said "Gato? You mean Gato of Gato Shipping Industries? Why would he put a bounty on you?"

"It's because the bridge I'm building is the one thing that could break the grip he has on my country." Tazuna said.

"Explain." Kakashi said as he kept his stare on the man.

Scene Change: Shore of Land of Fire

Naruto stood on a tree next to a small dock as he looked out at the island that was barely visible to his eyes in his transformed state due to the mist that surrounded the island. It was a good thing no one was around. If they were, they would have seen one really big bird that could have been mistaken as a summon. It was mostly brown with three long and wide feathers that gave it the vague appearance of having hair coming from the top of its head and swooping down to the end of its tail feathers.

The Pidgeot then looked upwards and spotted the clones that were transformed into Wingulls as they flew around spying on the boats that were spread throughout the area running patrols. As the small long winged birds flew around keeping an eye out for their ride to the island, Naruto considered just what he and the other Leaf shinobi were getting themselves into.

Tazuna had told them about how Gato had taken over the island nation's shipping industries which was the blood of the people's economy. With a firm grip on those, Gato had been able to place himself as a tyrant over the people taxing them into such a level of poverty that Naruto doubted he could really believe until he saw it for himself.

Tazuna's bridge would open up a trade route to the Land of Fire that would effectively shatter Gato's hold on their country. Which would explain why Gato wanted the man dead as soon as possible.

Naruto shook his head from those thoughts when one of his clones dispelled in the cover of a passing cloud. Their ride was on its way. Naruto turned around on the branch he was perched on before opening his wings and flying a short distance into the forest where the others were waiting.

Landing in front of the small group, Naruto dropped his transformation and said "The boat should be here in about thirty minutes."

Kakashi nodded and said "Do you think the patrol boats will be any trouble?"

Naruto shook his head and said "Not with how small our own boat is. The patrols seem to be more for stopping any of the boats that you could actually smuggle more than just a few people over with. We just need to time it right. Worst comes to worst and we do get spotted, I can send some exploding clones underwater and sink 'em."

Kakashi frowned and said "Let's try to avoid sinking any of them. It would defeat the purpose of sneaking in if we draw attention to ourselves."

Naruto shrugged and said "You're the alpha."

Thirty minutes later, the group met up with one of Tazuna's friends who was one of the few people who still had a boat and brave enough to actually use it. Five minutes after that, Tazuna and the team was in the boat with Squirtle swimming beside the boat on one side and a clone transformed into a Swampert on the other. Overhead, an exploding shadow clone transformed into a Fearow flew at a height that you would have to use a couple of sensory enhancement Genjutsu to see.

Since they were expecting a Jounin to be around somewhere, Kakashi had asked Naruto if any of the Pokemon he could turn into could be hidden real well and be used for a sneak attack. Because they had some walking to do after they got off the boat, Naruto decided to go with a flying type and Fearow in his opinion was the best choice by far. Fearows had had the best eyesight of any flying type and could stay up in the air for a long time without flapping its wings. It may not have been a peregrine falcon in a dive, but it would still work best for what they needed. (I always thought of Fearows as the Pokemon world's U2 spy planes.)

A giant shape soon appeared surprising Kakashi, Sakura, and Sasuke at the size of the bridge. Naruto's jaw dropped as he looked at it. His clones had showed him an aerial view of the bridge but it didn't do it an ounce of the justice that being right next to it on the water did.

Naruto whistled lowly under his breath and said "Damn. My clones had showed me an aerial view but this is so much more impressive up close."

Tazuna had a proud smirk on his face as he said "Thanks kid. This here is my super masterpiece. I have never built anything as super as this and I doubt I will again for a long time if ever.

Squirtle looked at the bridge making its eyes widen and turned to Naruto and said something that caused Naruto to chuckle.

Seeing the confused looks on everyone else's faces, he said "Squirtle says that he thinks a Groudon could walk on it and still have space on either side. He's wrong of course, but it's still impressive."

Squirtle rolled his eyes in a whatever motion and took one last look at the bridge before focusing in front of him.

Seeing them become even more confused, Naruto slipped Dex out and flipped it open and muted the speaker before searching through the index. When he came to the right entry, he flipped it around and everyone leaned in to see a picture of a truly colossal sized Pokemon that had red armor plates over it's brown body with yellow eyes and black spikes.

The group then spotted the height and weight stats and Kakashi's eye widened. The thing was bigger than a boss summon.

Turning to his student, he said "Naruto, can you turn into this yet?"

Sasuke and Sakura studied him intently with Sasuke ready to go into full mode brooding if the Dead Last could turn into something so big.

Luckily for all the non emo people though, Naruto shook his head as he closed the Pokedex and said "Not yet. It takes a ton of Chakra to transform into anything that size. I mean I probably could, but as I am now I would most likely knock myself out in the process."

Kakashi nodded and relaxed a bit. He couldn't imagine the panic that would come from the villagers if Naruto ever transformed into something even remotely close to that thing's size.

After the boat had traveled along the bridge for a short distance, it went through a tunnel that ended in a mangrove forest. As the boat pulled up to a dock, Naruto recalled Squirtle and dispelled the Blastoise clone as well. As it did, the Wingull clones all flew into the surrounding clouds and dispelled as well giving Naruto their memories of the patrol boat routes.

Shaking his head at the influx of so much information, Naruto looked up at where his Fearow clone should be. Looking back down as Tazuna thanked his friend, Naruto got into formation and the group began walking towards Tazuna's house.

As the group walked, mist wrapped around their ankles causing them to slow down so that they could be sure of their footing. Fifteen minutes later, the mist began picking up even more before the group heard an explosion up ahead and saw a light red glow that died down almost instantly.

Naruto frowned as he picked up the memories from his Fearow clone. It showed it taking a dive when it spotted someone and exploding right on top of a figure with a really big sword just as it jumped out of the way.

Turning to Kakashi he said "Tall man with black hair and a really large sword. I think he was able to get away."

Kakashi frowned as well and said "Everyone be on guard."

Sasuke and Sakura each expanded their senses as Tazuna tensed even further than he already was. Naruto made a couple of clones who transformed into a couple of purple snakes with yellow bands. As the Ekans clones made their way through the forest, Naruto looked towards Kakashi who nodded in approval. Looking back forward, Naruto stood up a bit straighter and mentally prepared himself for anything. The man that the Fearow clone had attacked had been a real giant and looked extremely strong as well.

Ten minutes later, the situation was really getting to Sakura and Sasuke who were constantly trying to look around without seeming to. Tazuna was even worse visibly sweating as the anticipation was killing him. Naruto was nervous as well but at least he had a way of knowing where the man was before hand.

All of a sudden, one of his clones dispelled causing Naruto's eyes to widen.

"Everyone DOWN!" Naruto yelled as he dove forward followed by the others as Kakashi grabbed Sakura and Sasuke dragged Tazuna with him just before a large spinning blur went over them and slammed into a tree revealing it to be a sword.

The group looked up when a figure landed on the sword. It was a tall man with black hair and beady grey eyes wearing blue pants and arm warmers that were in a cow hide pattern. His chest was bare except for two straps that crossed his chest in a x pattern presumably used to hold the giant sword he was currently standing on. Naruto and Kakashi both saw the burnt leather on the man's left arm warmer and knew that this was the man who the Fearow clone had tried to kill.

Naruto then stiffened as his other cloned popped showing him a figure that was hiding in the woods. Naruto frowned as he kept himself from looking at where the clone had spotted the figure. Why was a hunter nin from the Mist simply standing in a tree while a Mist ninja who was obviously a missing nin if the scratched headband was any indication was in front of them?

"Well, well. Kakashi Hatake, the Copy Nin. This is an honor. Now I know why the Demon Brothers failed and where that exploding Shadow Clone came from. I don't assume that you would just hand the bridge builder over would you?"

Kakashi and the others stood up as he said "Zabuza Momochi, the Demon of the Mist. You guys stay back and guard the client, he's way out of your league."

"Demon?" Naruto asked with a raised eyebrow.

"That's right. When he was still in the academy, he killed the entire graduating class."

Naruto gave a low whistle as Zabuza grinned and said "Ah, good times."

As Kakashi walked past him, Naruto whispered "Hunter-nin in the forest." Causing Zabuza to stiffen a little when he read his lips wondering how the brat knew that.

Kakashi nodded slightly and rose his headband revealing his left eye as he said "Something tells me I'm going to need to use this."

"Oh? The Sharingan already? I'm honored." Zabuza said as he rose an eyebrow.

Sasuke frowned as he heard this wondering if his teacher was an Uchiha.

"This should be entertaining." Zabuza said before he and his sword disappeared.

As they looked around trying to spot the man, Sakura shouted out "He's on the water!"

Everyone looked there to see the man doing a weird hand sign before the mist began thickening until no one could see more than a foot in front of them causing the three Gennin to close up their formation even more. Naruto frowned before making a hand sign of his own. Sasuke and Sakura both stiffened at the sound of Naruto transforming but relaxed when they saw that it was their teammate.

Naruto closed his eyes and used his new psychic senses to locate everyone. As he did, he sensed killing intent twice as bad as any the villagers ever sent his way and heard from the Mist "There are eight targets: Throat, spinal column, lungs, liver, the jugular vein, the subclavian artery, kidney, heart. So many choices, which vital target should I go for first?"

"What's he doing?" Sakura asked in a hoarse whisper.

"Trying to unnerve us. And doing a good job I might add." the transformed Naruto said calmly as he locked onto the source of the voice before frowning as he sensed another figure appear right by the first that didn't feel human.

On his other side, Sasuke was struggling to breath as their teacher matched the Mist nin's killing intent with his own. Reaching into his kunai pouch, he shakily brought a kunai up to his own throat ready to escape the sensation of pure fear he was experiencing.

"Sasuke, calm down! I won't let any of my comrades die!" Kakashi said before he pulsed out his chakra dispersing the mist a bit as Sasuke relaxed.

Naruto sensed the second figure move quickly from its spot before hearing "Too late."

As Kakashi swore to himself and rushed to his students, Naruto's eyes snapped open and he spun slashing the figure in half with the blades that were part of his arms that began at his fingers and ended a good foot past his elbows.

The figure that looked like Zabuza looked at him in surprise for a moment before smirking and dispersing into water.

"What on earth is that?" Zabuza asked stopping his own charge at Kakashi in surprise as he saw for the first time what Naruto had transformed into. He stared at the man sized mostly green and white figure that had a purple triangle sticking out of its chest.

Naruto turned back towards where Zabuza was as Kakashi skid to a halt next to him and smirked as he said "A Gallade. A psychic type Pokemon that's not afraid to get close and personal with its opponents. There's no way you can sneak up on us again."

"Not bad Naruto." Kakashi said over his shoulder as he walked towards Zabuza and took out a kunai. The two Jounin then disappeared in blurs of speed as the Gennin and Tazuna heard the clanging sounds of metal on metal.

After a while, Zabuza was able to kick Kakashi into the lake. As he surfaced, Kakashi thought 'This water is heavier than it should be. That means!'

"Too late." Zabuza growled out as he appeared behind Kakashi already doing hand signs.

"Water Style: Water Prison Jutsu."

As Kakashi became trapped in a sphere of water, Zabuza gave a dark chuckle and said "Now to deal with those brats of yours."

As a couple of water clones formed and began walking towards them, Kakashi shouted out "Run! Take the client and get out of here! He can't leave from this spot and his clones can only travel a short distance away from the original!"

Naruto sighed as the clones made landfall and said "Kakashi-sensei, do you really have such little faith in us?"

Before Kakashi could say anything, Naruto was covered in smoke before a blue, yellow, and red blur shot out of the cloud through the two clones who dispersed into water before it dived into the lake.

"What the?" Zabuza said before a large figure burst out of the water underneath him and nearly ripped off his arm in its large jaw as he jumped away to avoid it.

As Zabuza's hand left the sphere, it burst apart leaving a soaking wet Kakashi who looked at the top of the head that was now poking out of the water near him and staring intently at Zabuza. From what little he could see, Naruto had turned into some kind of alligator.

Back on shore, Sakura looked on in amazement while Sasuke frowned in anger and thought 'The Dead Last keeps getting stronger! How? I'm the one who needs that kind of strength, not some clan less nobody!'

Back with Kakashi and Naruto, the two were staring at Zabuza who was fuming as well. As he looked at the blue creature that had a red Mohawk looking piece of skin on its head, he said "Now what did the brat turn into?"

The head snorted before Kakashi said "Naruto, head back to shore. I'll handle this."

The head snorted again before turning towards land. When it reached the shore, everyone got a good look at what Naruto had turned into. It looked like a large blue alligator with a yellow stomach and lower jaw that stood on its hind legs which were larger around than its arms showing that while it could move fast on all fours, it was mostly a bipedal creature. There were some bumps on its skin making it look like it had pockets on its legs and arms as well as a large jaw that looked like it could tear through even steel with ease. As it stood up, water dripped off of it leaving it almost completely dry.

The Feraligator gave one last look at Zabuza before it dropped its transformation revealing Naruto as he walked back to his teammates.

"Now then Zabuza." Kakashi said as he readied himself "Lets try this again. Oh and by the way, that trick won't work on me a second time."

Zabuza hmphed before the two began a Ninjutsu battle. But as Kakashi kept copying each of his Jutsu, he became more and more frustrated.

"You damn monkey! Stop" Zabuza started

"Copying Me!" Kakashi finished frustrating Zabuza even further.

Growling, Zabuza made even more hand signs before stopping for a split second in the middle when he saw a shadow of himself behind his opponent.

"What?" Zabuza asked with wide eyes before he heard "Water Style: Water Vortex Jutsu!"

As the funnel of water blasted Zabuza towards shore, he thought 'He finished before me, how?'

As Zabuza crashed into the trees, a pair of kunai dug into his arms pinning to it and made him grunt in pain. Looking up at Kakashi who appeared in a tree branch beside him, he said "You. Can you see the future?"

"Why yes." Kakashi said as he held up a kunai "And yours is death."

Two senbon needles suddenly embedded themselves into the missing nin's neck causing him to slump over farther.

'About time.' Naruto thought as he spotted the hunter-nin on a branch of his own on the opposite side of the now dead body.

Kakashi jumped down and checked for a pulse before looking at the figure. 'He can't be any older than my students and yet he's already a hunter nin. Impressive.'

As the hunter dropped down, he bowed and said "Thank you for your help. I doubt I could have taken him by myself. Now if you will excuse me, I have to properly dispose the body."

Kakashi nodded and the figure placed a hand on the body before making a one handed hand sign and disappeared in a whirlwind of leaves.

As the hunter nin left, Kakashi placed his headband back over his left eye and sighed before collapsing.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura shouted out as everyone rushed over to him.

Naruto checked his pulse and sighed in relief when he felt one before saying "He's alright, just exhausted."

The others nodded as Naruto placed his teacher on his back and gestured for Tazuna to lead the way.

As Tazuna lead them to his house, Sakura looked at Naruto and said "Naruto, what was that last Pokemon you turned into? It seemed to be a lot faster than something that size should have been."

Naruto chuckled and said "It wasn't much faster than a normal crocodile or alligator Sakura. People just don't realize how fast they can really be since they're usually pretty lazy. But to answer your question, it was a Feraligator."

Sakura nodded while Sasuke's frown lessened the barest hints since Naruto had told them before that when transformed, he could only go as fast as the Pokemon could normally.

'I will find out how you can turn into those creatures Dead Last. And when I do, I will finally be able to kill HIM.'


	6. Poke Bridge Builders Inc At Your Servic

6. Poke Bridge Builders Inc. At Your Service

Scene: Tazuna's House: Second Floor

Naruto and his partners all watched the still form of Kakashi as he slept off the effects of overusing his transplanted Sharingan. Downstairs Sakura was doing whatever she could to help the bridge builder's daughter, Tsunami, around the house while Sasuke merely sat out of the way brooding. Naruto sighed lightly to himself catching his partners' attention.

'I can't stop thinking that something isn't right here.' Naruto thought before glancing at his partners.

Frowning, he thought 'Why do I feel like something big is going to happen.'

Naruto studied his partners for a moment and then said "Guys, I think that we're going to have a fight on our hands soon, a big one. I also think we're going to need as much fire power for this one as possible. It's been just over a month now since I found you guys. Do you guys think you're ready to go to the next level soon?"

The three Pokemon traded glances as they considered the question before turning back to their trainer and as one nodded.

Naruto nodded as well and said "Then I guess tomorrow we'll start on getting you three ready to evolve."

A groan brought their attention back to Kakashi who was slowly lifting himself into a sitting position.

"How're you feeling Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked prompting the man to slowly turn his head and tiredly study his student.

"Like I ran five marathons against Gai." Kakashi said as he rubbed a hand against his face.

Naruto rose an eyebrow and said "Well at least we took care of Zabuza. Although something's been bugging me ever since that fight. It's driving me crazy to be honest."

Kakashi sighed and said "I think I know what it is that's bothering you. Can you please bring Sakura and Sasuke up here?"

Naruto nodded and stood up to leave. As he reached the doorway, he stopped and said over his shoulder "I'm glad you're awake Kakashi-sensei. You really had us worried for a moment there when you collapsed like that."

Kakashi nodded again as the blond went out of the room to go collect his teammates.

A minute later all three Gennin as well as Tazuna and his daughter who had come to check on the scarecrow Jounin were sitting in the room around the man.

"Guys, I'm afraid I have some bad news. Zabuza's alive." Kakashi said short and to the point.

"What? But how is that possible?" Sakura asked as Tazuna began looking afraid.

"It was that Hunter-nin wasn't it?" Naruto asked now knowing where that feeling had come from.

Kakashi focused on Naruto for a moment as he nodded his head before looking forward again and said "That's right. Something had been bugging me back there but it's only now that I'm realizing what's wrong. For starters, Hunter-nin are supposed to destroy the bodies of their targets on the spot to prevent anyone from stealing secrets from the body. Yet that one took off with it. And then there was the hunter's choice of weapons. They could have been used to put Zabuza in a deathlike trance that could have created a very convincing illusion of the real thing."

Naruto frowned and said "How so Kakashi-sensei?"

Kakashi took another glance at the easily most destructively oriented of his students and said "Senbon acupuncture needle weapons that shinobi hunter used can be deadly…If they hit a vital spot. If not, the mortality rate is surprisingly low…And remember, they were originally designed as medical treatment tools. Shinobi hunters and all members of any village's corpse disposal squad must possess an intimate and thorough knowledge of human physiology. It would be simple for one of them to place a person into a near-death state."

Kakashi glanced at his students and this time kept his gaze on them as he said "First of all, the masked boy went to the trouble of lugging off Zabuza's heavy carcass… Secondly, the acupuncture needles he used as weapons, while potentially deadly, can also be used to inflict non-mortal injury… these two points suggest that the kid's objective was to give the illusion of killing Zabuza, while rescuing him. And while things may be just the way they seemed…we have to consider this possibility as well."

The Gennin and Naruto's partners all stiffened as Kakashi spoke. Tazuna then rose up a hand and said "Aren't you just complicating things by over-thinking them? Shinobi hunters are supposed to hunt outlaw shinobi right?"

Before Kakashi could answer, Naruto shook his head and said "Just because someone has a mask doesn't automatically make them legit. It would be easy to fake a mask if you aren't going to be thoroughly scrutinized. Or the kid could probably have taken the mask from a hunter nin that Zabuza might have killed while on the run."

Kakashi nodded and said "Naruto's right Tazuna. We have to be prepared just incase what I think happened really did. And if it did happen that way, then we have one week to get ready for Zabuza to recover from his near-death state. On that note my students, I think it's time I up your training a bit."

Naruto's eyes lit up at the prospect of some training as he said "So what are you going to teach us? That cool water walking trick you and Zabuza did during the fight? A d or c-rank jutsu that almost everyone neglects using but has more than twenty ways of using it?"

Kakashi chuckled and said "Easy there Naruto. While it's true what I'm about to teach you is like what Zabuza and I did in our last battle, it is actually only the first step to being able to walk on water. What I'm going to be teaching you is called the tree climbing exercise."

"But Kakashi-sensei, we already know how to climb trees. We've known since we were five." Sakura asked a bit put down at what she thought was obviously going to be a waste of time. Sasuke didn't show it but was also a little put down. Naruto on the other hand-

"Tree climbing eh? Sounds fun." Naruto said with a grin.

"It won't be fun for you." A small boy wearing a striped bucket hat as he stepped into the room.

Everyone looked over at the kid and Naruto's grin grew as he said "Says you. I'd rather be training than being stuck in a house all week."

Tazuna smiled as well and said "Inari! Where have you been?

"Welcome home grandpa" The now introduced Inari said as he went over and hugged his grandfather.

"Inari, greet our guests properly. They're the esteemed ninja who brought your grandfather safely home."

"But mama, they're all going to die when they go against Gato" Inari said pointing at the Gennin.

Naruto and Squirtle burst out laughing surprising everyone while Bulbasaur narrowed his eyes at the kid. Charmander simply cocked his head in confusion.

Squirtle stopped laughing and said something and Naruto said "You got that right pal."

Seeing the kid glaring at him while everyone else stared in confusion, Naruto said "Squirtle says that if we've managed to get this far than it will take a lot more than some midget who pays others to do his dirty work to bring us down."

Inari glared and said "You're wrong! No matter what you do you'll just die out here!"

He then turned and rushed out of the room.

"Inari!" Tsunami cried out and was about to go after him before Tazuna placed a hand on her shoulder and shook his head as she turned to him.

"Let him be." The bridge builder said softly.

Kakashi slowly stood up and grabbed the crutches that Tsunami had put by his bed and said "Lets go. The sooner we get started, the sooner we can finish."

Scene Change Forest Fifteen Minutes From Tazuna's House

Kakashi stood in front of his Gennin team as he explained what they had to do. Resting up against a tree was Naruto's partners as they waited for Naruto to learn what he needed to before creating a clone to do the tree climbing training so that they could work on achieving evolution somewhere else.

"Alright listen up! This won't be any ordinary tree climbing. You're not allowed to use your hands."

Naruto grinned and said "Sounds pretty challenging."

"But how?" Sakura asked as she and Sasuke looked at Kakashi like he was insane.

"Watch and learn." Kakashi said as he made the ram hand sign for a moment before turning around and began walking up the tree

"Whoa! That's so cool!" Naruto said with stars in his eyes as he began thinking of all the pranks he could pull with that skill.

As Kakashi stepped onto the bottom of a branch and let out a small breath at the exertion the task put on his still recovering body, he said "That's it, in a nutshell. Focus all of the energy of your chakra toward the soles of your feet and use that power to cling to the trunk. When you have full mastery over your own chakras, this is the kind of thing you can accomplish."

"But, Master Kakashi, how will learning to climb trees this way make us any stronger?" Sakura asked.

"Isn't it obvious Sakura?" Naruto asked drawing everyone's attention to him as he walked over to a tree and placed his hand on it. Turning back to Sakura he said "Doing this exercise will teach us how to properly monitor how we use our chakra. Once we know how to properly put enough chakra into our jutsu, we can use it more efficiently."

"Naruto's right." Kakashi said drawing everyone's attention back to him as he continued "And there is a secondary objective which is to build up enough stamina necessary to complete your task once the chakra has been focused. If you think THIS looks hard, it's even more difficult to maintain your chakra when using Ninjutsu. In battle, circumstances are constantly changing, and a true shinobi has to be able to manipulate and maintain his chakras on the fly, if he ever hopes to prevail. The time you need to just stand around trying to summon and control your own powers is a luxury you won't have. So while climbing those trees, you'll also be mastering skills that will probably save your lives."

Kakashi then pulled out three kunai from his pocket and said "Now, no more talk. It's time for action. The only way to learn is by doing. And Naruto, I want you to try this at least once by yourself before you make a clone to do it for you. I want to see how high you yourself can go on your first try."

Naruto nodded and walked back to where his teammates were as Kakashi tossed the three kunai to the ground in front of his students and said "Use the kunai blades to score the bark at the highest point you can climb to. It will serve as a reminder for later. Your goal is to make a mark on a higher spot each time you climb. Don't worry, I don't expect any of you to reach the treetop on you first try. A running start will probably give enough momentum for a good first effort."

The Gennin bent down and picked up their kunai before facing a tree and made the ram hand sign as they concentrated. As he did, Naruto focused on the feeling of firmness that he had felt when he had his hand on the tree. Unknown to the others, Naruto had actually stuck his hand against the tree testing it out a little before rejoining his teammates.

The three Gennin opened their eyes and took off at the trees. As soon as they reached the base of the trees, Naruto focused completely on the task as he began climbing. He briefly registered Sasuke flipping off his tree a short distance from the ground and Sakura stopping at the lowest branch before he brought even that bit of focus back to the task at hand concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other and maintaining his chakra flow. He made it about half way up before he suddenly lost his focus enough for his chakra to spike causing part of the bark to explode. Naruto reflexively jumped away barely remembering to mark his progress with his kunai before bouncing against a nearby tree at an angle aiming for another that he also bounced off of on his way down.

Back near the ground, Sasuke was looking at Sakura in amazement while Kakashi said "Well, so much for the great Uchiha. It seems that Sakura is the better when it comes to chakra control."

Sakura blushed at the comment but then looked around and said "Hey, where's Naruto? I would have thought he wouldn't have gotten more than ten feet."

"Where indeed?" Kakashi asked before looking 'down' the tree seeing the blond lose focus halfway up the tree and began bouncing against the other trees on his way down.

Sakura and Sasuke followed Kakashi's glance upwards and their eyes widened as the blond made his way down. As he reached the level that Sakura was, Naruto grabbed a branch and used his momentum to swing around it once before letting go and flew towards his partners in a arc before back flipping and landing in a crouch next to them.

Squirtle and Charmander were cheering their trainer on while Bulbasaur smirked at him as he gave a short bow and said "Thank you ladies and gents."

"Hm, not bad Naruto. You made it halfway up on your first try." Kakashi said honestly impressed even though he knew that Naruto had worked his clones' butts off on chakra control exercises when he first learned the shadow clone jutsu to get his chakra control closer to his classmates' levels."

Sasuke glared at the blond as he turned around and nodded to Kakashi and said "Thanks Kakashi-sensei. Do you mind if I make a clone and then go somewhere else to train my partners? I need to get them ready for evolution and the sooner we get started, the better."

Kakashi nodded and said "Sure Naruto. Just don't stay out too late."

Naruto nodded again and quickly making a clone and handed it his kunai before gesturing to his partners and began heading deeper into the forest to hopefully find a clearing they could use. And if not, then it would be even more training for he and his partners to make one. Who knows, maybe Naruto could even finally figure out a way for him to use a Pokemon's attacks while transformed as they trained.

Luckily, they found a clearing that was only about a half hour from where the other two Gennin and his clone were learning how to tree walk.

Turning to his partners after he studied the area he said "This will do. I'm going to create some clones for you to fight. We'll start off with you guys working as a team for a while and then move on to battles where you will be fighting each other and me in either one on ones or two on ones. In the meantime, I'll have a few other clones working on learning how to perform attacks. Sound good?"

The three Pokemon nodded as the clones appeared filling the clearing. Ten of them took off into the forest to find more secluded areas while the rest split into groups waiting for the Pokemon to make the first move.

Bulbasaur was the first to oblige as he took off running while launching barrages of razor leafs at each of the groups with Charmander and Squirtle on his heels launching their own ranged attacks as they moved to get in closer to use their close range attacks while the clones tried to keep them away with the training kunai that they always used for practice.

Naruto watched his partners and clones do battle for a moment as he leaned against a nearby tree before looking up at it. Grinning, Naruto took out a kunai and put it in his mouth as he took a few steps away from it. Naruto was then covered in smoke before a Cranidos shot out with the kunai still in its mouth and began rapidly running up the tree.

As the small grey and blue dinosaur like creature continued up the tree, Naruto thought 'Let's see how high I can get when transformed.'

Scene Change: Tazuna's House

Tazuna's family and Team 7 minus Naruto's partners were sitting at the table eating dinner.

Tsunami looked worried as she said "Kakashi, shouldn't one of us go out to find your other student?"

Kakashi shook his head and said "Nah, Naruto will be back soon."

Right on cue, the door to the house opened and then closed as Naruto and two clones came in carrying Naruto's partners who were asleep and looked like they had been through three separate wars in one day.

"See?" Kakashi asked before turning around to face the lead blond and said "So how did training go?"

Naruto grinned and said "Pretty good if I do say so myself. They just need another day, two at most before they're ready and I've almost figured out how Pokemon do their attacks as well."

"I see. That's good to hear." Kakashi said as he did his best not to think about the mayhem Naruto could unleash if he succeeded in learning how to perform Pokemon attacks while he was still in a phase where he would rather play a prank on someone to get revenge than work things out with the person.

Naruto nodded and set Bulbasaur down on the floor as his hand became coated in a soft glow of bluish green chakra before placing it along his partner's body slowly healing the small bruises and cuts. On either side of him, his clones were doing the same with the other two.

A minute later, the three Pokemon were healed and Naruto unsealed three apples for his partners from the storage scroll that he always kept on hand for them as his clones dispelled. Setting the apples down in front of them for when they woke up, Naruto then stood and took his own place at the table and began eating not even caring that the food was a bit cold.

As he took a bite out of his meal, Sakura frowned and said "Hey Naruto?"

"Hm?" Naruto hummed before swallowing and said "What is it Sakura?"

'How do you do that? You said it's not medical jutsu but you use it to heal your partners. Heck, you even used it to revive that cat. So what do you do?"

Kakashi studied Naruto in curiosity as well while Naruto considered his words as he took another bite out of his meal. Swallowing again, he said "You know how I'm trying to learn how to perform Pokemon attacks while transformed right?"

Sakura nodded and Naruto said "Well, I already figured out how to perform one. But unlike most Pokemon 'attacks', this one is a healing move called synthesis. Think of it as a self healing medical jutsu. Only I've modified it a little. I found that when I push my chakra into a wound while I'm using it that I can have the 'attack' heal others. But for now I can only do minor wounds."

Kakashi rose an eyebrow and said "That's very impressive Naruto. Though I must say I'm surprised you were able to learn how to do that move but can't do any others. I would have thought that it would have been easier for you to learn a few of the more destructive moves first."

Naruto shook his head and said "Believe me, it wasn't easy by any means. It took a thousand clones working each day for a week to learn how to do that when I was transformed into a Pokemon that could do that move. It took me even longer to figure out how to do it untransformed, which is something I'm not planning to do for any other attacks since it would take way too long for the others if this one was anything to go by. It was actually the first move that I started trying to learn so that I could heal my Pokemon since there isn't a Poke Center around anymore which were like miniature hospitals for Pokemon. On another note, when I learned how to perform that move for one Pokemon, I found that I could use it while transformed as any other that could use it. So I just need to learn how to perform an attack as one Pokemon that can use it and I'll be good for the others. It's taking a while though and so far I'm stuck with only body type attacks which are really just adding regular chakra to do more damage when you use them."

Kakashi nodded and said "I see. But I thought you said you were going to tell me when you figured out how to perform Pokemon attacks. You've been healing your partners for more than two weeks now."

Naruto shrugged and said "I don't consider synthesis an actual attack. And besides, anyone could tackle someone or scratch them with a claw like weapon. Now launching a stream of fire without hand signs or even firing off a beam of ice, those are attacks."

Kakashi sighed in defeat and said "I hate how you can bend words like that. You can be worse than the council at times, you know that?"

Naruto chuckled and said "Why do you think I have them sputtering each time they ever called for me?"

Kakashi chuckled as well and said "Indeed." before both went back to their dinner. Sakura looked confused for a moment before shrugging and going back to her own dinner. At his spot at the table Inari glared at them all before standing up and left the kitchen drawing a sad look from Tsunami.

Scene Change: Tazuna's Bridge, The Next Day

Kakashi had asked Naruto to create some clones to help around the bridge and guard Tazuna. So the blond was currently standing in front of Tazuna and the workers as he crossed his fingers and said "Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

The front of the bridge was covered in smoke before dispersing revealing a hundred clones much to the surprise of the workers minus Tazuna.

"All right, listen up!" Naruto said gaining the clones' attention who had been looking around. "I want twenty five of you to transform into Machops, twenty five into Machokes, and twenty five into Machamps. The rest of you transform into Blastoises."

The clones nodded and made hand signs before that part of the bridge was once again covered in smoke. As the smoke cleared away again, the workers were shocked at what they saw. Each of the figures were blue with the last group having large brown shells covering their torsos. The others all looked like muscle builders with one group having two pairs of arms instead of one.

Naruto turned around and smirked at their faces as he said "Poke Bridge Builders Inc. at your service. I figured you'd want some of them to be able to bring some of your people down to check the pillars of the bridge Tazuna. They can also go underwater to check as well if need to. Also, all of them are at least five times as strong as most humans so you should have no problems. Well, me and my partners need to get to training now so I'll see you later."

Tazuna nodded and thanked the blond as he took off into the forest with his partners behind him. Tazuna then grinned as he looked at his new workers and rubbed his hands and said "All right guys, that kid just gave us some free labor, lets put it to good use!"

The rest of the workers cheered before Tazuna began barking out orders.


	7. The Evolution

7. Evolution

Forest On Wave

Naruto smirked as he looked at his partners who had proud smiles/smirks on their own faces as they looked back at him. Standing in front of him were three middle level Pokemon who were still enjoying the feeling of power that came from the evolution process. Naruto's smirk turned into a proud smile as he remembered what happened earlier.

Flashback: Scene: Forest Clearing Two Hours After Leaving Tazuna's Bridge

Naruto had decided that it would be more time efficient to simply create another training area a short distance away from the bridge. So once he and his partners were at a safe distance away from everything else, he had his partners let loose cutting down trees as he transformed into a Scyther as well as making three clones to aid in cutting down trees leaving some trunks at various heights to add variety into the area that would soon become a training ground.

The three Pokemon meanwhile worked as a team on the ground as they slipped into a procedure that they have done multiple times when Team 7 was given a mission to clear out a part of the forest near the Village to build off of. Bulbasaur would launch multiple barrages of razor leafs at tree trunks thinning them down to just a foot in thickness before Charmander would let loose with a flamethrower that would further weaken the tree. Once enough of the trunk was burned away, Squirtle would douse the flames before attacking the tree with a skull bash sending the tree crashing down away from where their trainer was.

Once the tree was down, Bulbasaur would trim off the branches and cut the tree into segments that Squirtle would roll out of the way using its water gun while Charmander occasionally burned the roots of the stump enough for Bulbasaur to pull out as well once Squirtle had extinguished the fire.

With Naruto, he did something similar slicing through the tree with his transformed arms sending the tree crashing to the floor before he began cutting the tree into segments. As he did this, a clone transformed into Scyther's evolved form, Scizor, would then use its claws to cut off the branches before another couple of clones transformed into Machamps would then haul the segments over to where the Pokemon were depositing their own segments.

Now an area that once held proud trees was an area riddled with stumps that were at various heights that had their tops flattened to the point where someone could easily stand on them without too much trouble.

Naruto glanced over the training area one more time before glancing over at the tree segments that were off to the side and frowned. It seemed like a waste to let all that wood just rot off to the side. Coming to a decision, Naruto created a group of twenty clones who instantly went to the logs and began preparing them for transport to the village where Naruto was sure the villagers could find some use for them.

Once that was out of the way, Naruto turned to his partners and said "Alright guys, lets get started. Free for all, no limitations. We don't stop until all three of you have evolved."

The Pokemon nodded before as one the four separated and began moving throughout the stumps attacking each other in a dangerous game of war whenever they ran into each other.

As Naruto moved through the maze of stumps, he heard the sound of steam being made as Squirtle and Charmander engaged each other before he suddenly had to dodge out of the way of a bunch of leaves that landed where he had been. Naruto looked around the stump that he was crouched behind before he had to quickly duck back as a smirking Bulbasaur let loose another barrage at him from his position on top of a tree stump.

'If that's how you want to play it, then lets try this.' Naruto thought before he made a hand sign and disappeared in a cloud of smoke that made Bulbasaur stiffen in anticipation for whatever the blond transformed into.

He was unprepared though when a Ryhorn burst out of the smoke and around the stump before it rammed into the stump Bulbasaur had been standing on sending the Grass type flying. Before he could get too far though, Bulbasaur sent out his vines and wrapped them around the still running rhino Pokemon's legs causing it to trip as the green Pokemon pulled on its vines intending to tackle the Pokemon while it was down.

Right when it did though, the Rhyhorn burst into smoke causing Bulbasaur to widen it's eyes before a shadow appeared over him. Bulbasaur jumped out of the way barely avoiding the Hitmonlee's foot that slammed into the ground before it was covered in smoke and a Hitmontop came out spinning. The fighting type quickly bared down on the grass type who just as quickly launched its vines at a stump and pulled itself up just in time to dodge the transformed blond as it shot forward and bounced off a stump as it continued on its way.

Bulbasaur quickly decided that he wanted to fight something that wouldn't be constantly changing on him and shot his vines toward one of the larger stumps that were in range and quickly drew himself towards it to find one of his fellow Pokemon to fight against.

Bad Idea. As soon, as he was close enough to the stump, Squirtle tackled his friend from behind another and the two began rolling around on the ground as they tried to come out on top.

Charmander meanwhile was looking around another stump as he tried to get a drop on one of the others. His match against Squirtle had ended in a stalemate when the two had been covered in the steam from their two attacks meeting allowing the turtle Pokemon to slip away undetected.

Charmander then saw a spinning top come bouncing along the tree stumps towards him. Deciding to try his luck against his trainer, Charmander's tail began glowing as he waited. As soon as the Hitmontop was close enough, Charmander swung his tail hoping to trip the spinning Pokemon. The Hitmontop instead jumped over the Iron Tail attack and transformed while it was still in the air causing Charmander to jump away from the blond who had landed behind him.

Charmander turned to face the blond and opened his mouth shooting out a smokescreen. As he was covered in the thick smoke, Naruto lightly cursed under his breath before a glowing tail suddenly appeared right in front of him and slammed into the blond shooting him out of the cloud to land painfully against the stump. Naruto barely had time to groan out in pain before he had to dodge the flamethrower that came out of the smokescreen.

As the smokescreen dissipated, Charmander looked around trying to find his trainer. A large smoke cloud appeared on top of a stump behind him drawing his attention as it dispersed revealing a grinning Charizard causing Charmander's eyes to widen.

The transformed blond gave off a roar before opening his wings and rushed toward the fire type who quickly made his tail glow and spun to slam it into the flying lizard who pivoted with its own tail glowing blue from the chakra running through it. The two tails slammed into each other pushing the two combatants away with uneven forces.

Charmander slid on the ground before stopping as Naruto flew threw the air backwards before hitting a stump. As the transformed blond slumped down, he dropped the transformation with a pained grunt. His attention was drawn back to his partner though when he saw the fire type began glowing.

Charmander's form then began to shift into a larger one with the head angling back into some kind of horn. As the glow died down revealing Charmander's evolved form, Dex's muffled voice sounded from Naruto's vest pocket as its sensors picked up the evolution.

"Charmeleon: Flame type Pokemon. In the rocky mountains where Charmeleon live, their fiery tails shine at night like stars."

Naruto smirked and said "Booyah baby!"

The newly evolved Charmeleon opened his eyes and studied his form for a moment before he glanced up at Naruto when he shifted into a standing position.

"Nice job pal." Naruto said with a smile before his face took on a worried expression as the fire type suddenly grinned evilly at his trainer before he opened his mouth that began glowing.

Naruto's eyes widened as he jumped away just as Charmeleon launched a Fire Blast at the shape shifter.

"Holy Shit!" Naruto shouted out as the five pronged attack blasted straight through the maze before detonating against a tree. Turning back to his partner he said "Now that's what I'm talking about!"

Charmeleon gave a proud smirk before turning his head in a seemingly random direction and motioned Naruto to follow him as he took off through the maze.

As he followed his partner, Naruto frowned and thought 'Why is he acting more like Squirtle? Did evolution really change more than his form and power levels? I sure hope not.'

The two made their way through the maze until they found an interesting sight. Squirtle and Bulbasaur were for some reason having a strength contest with Squirtle pushing against Bulbasaur's vines.

Naruto rose an eyebrow and said "Uh, guys, what are you doing?"

The two looked up at the blond before their eyes traveled to Charmeleon and widened.

Naruto smirked and said "You guys just going to stand there or are you going to try to evolve? Charmeleon obviously had enough experience when he fought me."

The two looked at each other for a moment before nodding to each other. Taking a few steps away from each other, they closed their eyes and concentrated for about a minute before both began glowing. Then as one their forms began shifting.

Both grew in size as pointed appendages that Naruto could only assume were ears appeared on Squirtle's form as its tail became bigger. Bulbasaur's bulb seemed to grow taller before partially opening before fern shaped leafs grew out under it.

The glowing died down revealing the two Pokemon's new forms before Dex once again spoke.

"Ivysaur: Seed type Pokemon. When the bud on its back starts swelling, a sweet aroma wafts to indicate the flower's coming bloom."

"Warturtle: Turtle type Pokemon. It is said to live 10,000 years. Its furry tail is a popular as a symbol of longevity."

Naruto's eyebrow rose at his Water type's description before shrugging and smiled at the two as they studied their new forms. Charmeleon then stepped forward and took his place by his friends as Naruto smirked at them and said "Good job guys."

All three smirked/smiled at him before their eyes widened as thirty clones appeared behind Naruto and he grinned evilly before saying "Ready for round two?"

Scene Change: Tazuna's House

Naruto strolled into the house with a wide grin on his face as he entered the kitchen.

"You seem happy." Kakashi said causing Naruto's grin to grow.

"Naruto, where are your partners?" Tsunami asked worried.

"You mean these partners?" Naruto asked as three beams of light escaped from the Pokeballs on his belt and formed into his partners in front of him.

"So that's their evolved forms." Kakashi mused as he studied the three Pokemon in front of him.

Naruto nodded and said "Yeah, and believe me, they're even stronger now than before. Now that they're at their middle levels, their attacks really pack a wallop now."

"Doesn't matter." Inari mumbled at his spot at the table.

Everyone focused on Inari as he glared at Naruto and said "Why do you even bother? You're just going to die any way when you go against Gato!"

Naruto cocked his head as he studied the boy in front of him and said "Yeah well it's better in my opinion to go down fighting than just roll over and wait to die."

Inari growled and said "Listen to you! You make me sick, coming her and talking about fighting like your some kind of hero when heroes don't exist! What gives you the right to come here not knowing anything and saying crap like that?"

Ivysaur and Warturtle narrowed their eyes slightly before shaking their heads.

Naruto merely rose an eyebrow and said "What right do we have? I didn't know that we needed a right to help people." Turning to Sakura, he said "Hey Sakura, did you know we needed a right to come here and help these people?"

Sakura merely shook her head before Inari shouted out "Stop talking crap! You have no idea what pain is! You probably don't want for anything in your village. I bet when you go home you'll go back to your parents and forget about this place so why don't you just leave now!"

"Inari!" Tsunami said before vines suddenly wrapped around the boy and jerked him over to Ivysaur who was glaring at him causing the boy's eyes to widen at the intensity of the glare.

"Ivysaur, let him go. He doesn't know what he's talking about." Naruto said gently.

Once Ivysaur had let him go, Naruto said "Inari, you don't realize how lucky you are. You still have your mother and grandfather. Me, I was born alone, an orphan the day I was born. I don't have a hug from a parent to look for when I get home. The only ones who share my home with me are my partners and I didn't even have them until a little over a month ago. Instead of moping around throwing yourself a pity party and telling everyone they're going to die, you should be trying to figure out what you can do to make everything better like your grandfather is. Otherwise you'll never become anything more than a pathetic shadow of what you could have been. Think about it."

Naruto then grabbed his plate and headed upstairs with his partners following him. As soon as the door upstairs closed Inari stood up and took off out of the house.

Tsunami began to get up but Kakashi beat her to it and said "I'll talk to him."

Kakashi found Inari sitting on the dock looking out over the water. Sitting down beside him, Kakashi looked out over the water as well as he said "Don't feel too bad about what Naruto said. He's had a pretty rough life himself. Being an orphan since birth is really only the tip of the iceberg for him. But he doesn't let it get to him. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen him cry. He must have one day just got tired of crying and decided to do the best that he could with his situation and work to improve it. Your grandfather is doing the same with the bridge he is building. And someday you'll have to choose what you'll do as well. I just hope you choose right."

Kakashi stood up and headed back into the house as Inari pulled his knees up to his chest and thought 'Daddy, what would you do?'

Scene Change: Tazuna's Bridge

The next day, the beginning of the bridge was once again covered by smoke as clones appeared and then transformed.

Tazuna grinned from where he was standing beside Naruto and said "At this rate the bridge will be finished in a week! I can't tell you how glad I am for your help on this kid."

Naruto smiled and said "Don't mention it. I would actually make more clones but I'm afraid there wouldn't be anything for them to do if I did."

"True." Tazuna said before he noticed that some of the clones had transformed into Wingulls as they took to the sky.

Looking to Naruto, he saw the blond shrug as he said "Better safe than sorry. They'll let us know if anyone comes so that way the other clones don't have to keep an eye out while they work like they did yesterday."

Tazuna nodded and Naruto and his partners began walking back to the training ground they had made. When they got there, they found the sight of a boy holding a basket frowning as he looked around the man made clearing.

"Something wrong?" Naruto asked startling the boy as he turned to look at him before his eyes were drawn to his partners.

The boy shook himself a moment later and said "No, it's just that I come this way sometimes when I look for herbs. I was not expecting to see all these trees gone. Who ever did the cutting though could use some more practice in being consistent."

Naruto chuckled and said "Not really, we cut them that way on purpose. It makes training more interesting when you have more than just a plain field to work with during a fight."

"I see." The boy said as he looked around at the clearing again. "I take it you're a ninja then? I don't think anyone else would train to be able to fight at varying heights like this."

Naruto rose an eyebrow at the observation but said "I am. Oh my name's Naruto by the way. These are my partners, Ivysaur, Charmeleon, and Warturtle."

The Pokemon each nodded to the boy when their trainer introduced them and the boy returned the nods before saying "Haku, nice to meet you."

Naruto nodded before he said "You said you were going to collect herbs right? You want some help?"

Haku smiled and said "Thanks, I would like that."

Haku led the four into a small clearing and showed Naruto what he needed.

As he picked one of the plants, Naruto said "So what are these for any way?"

Haku paused for a moment before saying "It's for a very precious person of mine who was injured recently."

'Ah." Naruto said as he picked one last herb before walking over and putting his load in the basket followed by his partners.

"Thank you, this should be plenty." Haku said.

"Glad we could help. See you around Haku." Naruto said before he began walking back to his training field with his partners falling into step on either side of him.

"Naruto." Haku said causing Naruto and his partners to stop and turn back around.

"Yes?" Naruto asked.

Haku studied the blond for a moment before asking "Do you have anyone precious to you?"

Naruto cocked his head in confusion and said "Anyone precious to me?"

Haku smiled and said "Someone who you would do anything for to keep that person safe."

Naruto smiled as well as he looked down at his partners and knelt down to rub Warturtle and Chameleon's heads who leaned into the contact.

Looking back up at the other boy he said "Well for starters there's my partners here. And then there's Iruka-sensei and the Old Man."

Haku smiled again and said "Then you must be truly strong."

Naruto rose an eyebrow and said "What do you mean by that?"

"I believe that it only when you have someone precious to you are you truly strong."

Naruto smiled again and said "A good philosophy to have. See you around Haku."

Naruto turned around and began walking again while calling over his shoulder "Tell Zabuza to get well soon. I still haven't found anyone I can fight with that has a sword and I'm looking forward to finally fighting one."

Haku's eyes widened as the blond disappeared into the forest. 'He knew?'


	8. Success! Chain Attacks Explained

8. Success!/Attack Chains Explained

The next two days passed quickly for everyone. Sasuke was nearly to the top of the trees while Sakura was now guarding Tazuna for one day as Kakashi's replacement before going back to tree climbing to build up her stores the next day. Thanks to Naruto's clones, the bridge was way ahead of schedule. Naruto himself though had been the most productive of those days.

Now that his partners had evolved, the four poured their entire focus into finding a way for the blond to be able to pull off a Pokemon attack. And the second day they succeeded with surprising results.

Scene: Cliffside Ten Minutes Before Sunset

Naruto and his partners were currently standing at the edge of a wide cliff as they looked out over the ocean as they waited for their audience.

"You wanted to see us Naruto?"

Naruto turned when he heard his sensei's voice as his shadow clone that had brought his team and the bridge builder's family dispelled.

Naruto nodded and said "Yeah, there was something I wanted to show you guys. You know how I said that if I learned an attack for one Pokemon, I could do it for any other that could also do that attack?"

Everyone nodded and Naruto continued "Well, me and my partners found something else that I can do once I learn an attack. But for you to understand what that thing actually means, you have to know about what I call attack chains of evolution. Various basic attacks that have what I call chains that describe the path the attack 'evolves' along. Take the electric style move Thunder Shock for instance. The Pokemon that uses it must learn how to first use that attack and then once it has enough experience can learn how to perform Thunder Wave, then after that Thunder Bolt, and finally after enough practice with that Thunder which is at the end of that particular attack's chain. Are you with me so far?"

Most of the others nodded while Sasuke said "Get to the point Dead Last."

Naruto's partners glared at the Uchiha while Naruto himself simply shook his head and continued like he hadn't heard him. "Earlier today, my clones and I were able to learn another basic move that has a chain of evolution called ember. It's the first fire attack that most fire types learn. Now this is where things get interesting. Normally a Pokemon would have to spend days at least after they mastered the first link of the chain before they could even hope to get the attack of the next level off properly. But when I was finally able to do Ember after a month of trying with hundreds of clones, I found that I could do the next level, Flamethrower, no more than an hour later and I hadn't even been using my clones yet!"

"So?" Sasuke asked annoyed that the blond was taking so long and wasting his time. Kakashi meanwhile was slowly putting together what Naruto was saying and he was not sure if he liked where this was going.

Naruto studiously ignored the emo again as he said "I had a theory about why I could learn how to perform a higher link faster than the first link but I had to test it. So once I was comfortable with using Flamethrower, I started figuring out how to do the attack that is what you could call a side by side link in the chain, Fire Spin. I ended up learning how to do that attack in about a half hour and that really confused me. I don't know why, maybe it was because the attack was at the same level as Flamethrower but there was no way I should have been able to learn how to control an attack that creates a burning tornado around an opponent that fast. But that's not what's important. What is, is when I decided to go for the final link, Fire Blast. I ended up learning it in twenty minutes flat. It seems that for some reason, whenever I finally learn an attack that has a chain of evolution, I can learn the next level faster than the one below it. I think it has something to with the fact that these attack chains are like chakra control exercises that you build off of. Once you get the hang of the basic ones, the ones that come after that are a lot easier to get the hang of."

Kakashi's eyes widened as he suddenly realized why Naruto had seemed so excited since he began talking.

"Naruto, how many of these attack chains are there?"

Dex's voice came from Naruto's vest. "Last count of attacks that were linked to each other by the need of experience in how to perform one attack to learn another were at eighteen. It is unknown if there are others although it is assumed that unknown chains do exist."

Naruto spoke up again and said "These chains are the main attacks that Pokemon use. If I can figure out how to perform the first links of all those chains in the same time frame as the Ember link, I'll have most of the 'battle oriented' attacks down in a little over a year."

"I see. That's fairly impressive Naruto. But why couldn't you have told us all of this at the house?" Kakashi asked.

Naruto grinned and said "Because I thought you guys would want a demonstration."

Warturtle and Ivysaur walked to the side of the group as Naruto and Charmeleon turned to face the ocean again. Naruto then crossed his hands and twenty seven clones joined the two with plenty of space between them before all of the blondes were covered in smoke revealing every single fire type in the Pokedex that Naruto could currently turn into except for his partner.

(At this point the can't go legendary yet. Also, for those wondering, I intend to see if I can work in the next generation of Pokemon from Black/White at some point in the future. I have to get the game first and play it a bit so I know what to put in. Most likely would be done during the time skip.)

The fire types then as one opened their mouths and shouted out "Fire Blast!"

Five pronged stars of fire shot out of Charmeleon and the transformed blondes' mouths and flew out in front of them for a hundred yards before dissipating.

"I stand corrected. That's _very_ impressive. Good job Naruto." Kakashi said as the fire types turned around with proud smirks before the clones disappeared in poofs of smoke and the original dropped his transformation.

"Thanks Kakashi-sense. I'm just glad I can finally do even one of a Pokemon's attacks."

As the others began talking to the blond about how impressed they were with what Naruto had did, Sasuke frowned in jealousy and began walking away.

'The Dead Last keeps getting stronger! I have to figure out how he does these things. I refuse to be outdone by some clan less idiot!'


	9. Battle On The Bridge

9. Battle On The Bridge

Tazuna's Bridge

Team 7 along with Tazuna and his family stood in front of the bridge staring at the mist that was on the bridge. Kakashi had decided that it was too risky leaving Tsunami and Inari at home alone since Gato could send someone to kidnap them while the ninja fought and so had brought them with them with the plan that Naruto would be keeping them safe with a platoon of transformed clones at a safe distance away from any fighting at the beginning of the bridge where Kakashi could know if anything happened to them.

Kakashi turned to Naruto and gave a nod telling the blond to begin the plan that they had came up with. Naruto gave a nod of his own before he crossed his fingers and called out "Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

Poofs of smoke appeared all around the group as a whole platoon plus two clones appeared before Naruto released his Pokemon. Turning to them, as the platoon began transforming into various fire types he said 'Keep them safe guys."

His partners gave nods before the last two clones as well as the original made hand signs of their own and became covered in smoke as well. When the smoke cleared, the two clones were shown to have turned into a pair of dragon types called Flygons with red covers over their eyes. The original Naruto was transformed into a Gallade just like he had the previous time.

Taking a deep breath, the psychic type then focused its senses on the bridge and picked up two presences. Turning his head to Kakashi, Naruto said "They're here Kakashi-sensei."

Kakashi nodded and turned to Sakura and said "Sakura, after Naruto's clones finish their attack runs, I want you to stay here with Tazuna and his family."

Sakura nodded and Kakashi motioned to Naruto's Flygon clones to continue with their plan. The two dragon types nodded before switching to viewing in the infrared spectrum and launched themselves into the mist.

POV FLYGON 1

Me and my brother had a fairly simple mission: test the waters. The original knew that Flygon had two different types of visions: regular vision like humans saw and infrared vision, and so we were going to be testing how well Zabuza and Haku could fight in their home field environment before we took it away from them. As we switched to heat vision and saw the two profiles, we flapped our wings and took off into the mist ready to see just how ready those two were.

Apparently they had pretty good ears because we saw Haku move and we both climbed to avoid the senbon needles that he had thrown at us. My brother kept climbing for about ten feet before breaking off and heading to the side to go for an attack run and I quickly did the same going the opposite direction. We were able to coordinate our runs properly and both let out Flamethrowers from opposing sides.

However, as we came around for another pass I noticed what appeared to be solid slabs of cold was shielding the two from the brunt of the flames. Before I could figure anything else out about it though, I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my side before I felt nothing else.

Normal POV

The original frowned as he not only sensed his Flygon clones dispel but also got their memories from their runs as well. Turning to Kakashi he said "Haku got them. They tried using Flamethrower but he used some kind of jutsu to block them."

Kakashi nodded before saying "I see. Guess we'll have to do this the hard way then. You and Sasuke will have to deal with Haku while I handle Zabuza. Do you think you could clear up all this mist from here?"

Naruto smirked as he dropped his transformation and said "I can't. But I know someone who can." Turning to Charmeleon, he said "Charmeleon, Sunny Day!"

The fire type nodded its head before it looked towards the sun and concentrated. Nothing seemed to happen for a moment before the sun seemed to get brighter and the mist began to burn away earning a raised eyebrow from Kakashi and astonished looks from everyone else but Sasuke who was glaring at the Pokemon.

At the end of the bridge, shouts of surprise could be heard before Kakashi motioned to Naruto and Sasuke to follow him. It was time to finish this.

As the three shinobi from the leaf started walking down the bridge to fight the two missing mist nin, Naruto briefly pictured himself transforming into a psychic type again and just knocking the two out by knocking their heads together with a gesture causing him to chuckle as an image of a Mewtwo with its arm raised and a blue shell around the two came to mind. Sadly, Naruto wasn't quite up to speed when it came to using psychic abilities to that extent yet.

That in mind, Naruto quickly decided that his best bet was to go with a rock type on this one since Haku obviously favored using senbon needles. As soon as that thought finished crossing his mind, Naruto made a quick hand sign and was covered in smoke before a Pokemon walked out earning a raised eye brow from Kakashi and a glare from Sasuke.

Naruto was now big, mean, and green. As a Tyranitar he stood at six foot seven and weighed approximately 445 lbs. Anyone trying to get in a fight with him was asking for trouble and that wasn't counting the fact that Tyranitar was capable of using a couple of fire type attacks either.

As the three leaf nin caught sight of the two mist nin Naruto saw Haku and Zabuza stiffen at the sight of him and smirked. This was going to be good.

"Well now Zabuza. Imagine meeting up with you here." Kakashi said once the two groups were relatively close.

"Cut the crap Kakashi." Zabuza growled as he took a quick glance at the transformed blond before continuing "We both know that I was going to be here today. Tell me, was it you or that brat over there who sent those fliers at us just now?"

"What's it matter to you?" Kakashi asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I might be willing to make you a deal. Give us the kid to take with us and we'll leave the old man alone. He could come in handy in my ambitions."

Kakashi frowned and said "I'm afraid I can't do that. Not only is he my responsibility as my student, but the Hokage is pretty fond of him as well."

"That's too bad." Zabuza growled out.

Sasuke meanwhile was furious. 'I'm the one who should be sought after, not the Dead Last! I am an Uchiha, an elite!'

Sasuke began walking forward and said "Dead Last, you better not get in my way!"

Everyone rose an eyebrow before Zabuza began chuckling and said "So the brat believes he is a shinobi eh? Haku, why don't you deal with him first."

"Very well Zabuza-sama." Haku said.

Kakashi wasn't having any of that. "Sasuke! Stick with the plan!"

The Uchiha turned from where he had been walking towards the fake hunter nin and glared at his sensei and said "Screw you Kakashi! I'm going to prove why we Uchihas are the elites!"

Kakashi's eye narrowed but before he could reprimand his student, said emo turned back around and ran toward Haku who did the same. Naruto was about to ask Kakashi if he should step in as well or let the prick be shown his place first when Zabuza began rushing towards the Jounin as well trying to take his head off with his huge blade and the two were off fighting as well. Naruto simply sighed and decided to wait and watch to step in if need be for either fight.

Sasuke VS Haku

As the two boys rushed towards each other, Sasuke pulled out a kunai from his pouch while Haku pulled out a senbon needle and the two began swiping at each other rapidly for about a minute before locking blades in a contest of strength.

As the two pieces of metal shook from the strain, Haku said with a smirk in his voice "You may be able to keep up with my speed for now, but I'm afraid that won't last for long. I had already set the stage for two attacks before we even begun."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed and he said "What the hell are you talking about?"

Haku's head jerked to two puddles of water that was near by that was from his jutsu from the Flygon attack runs and said "There is water lying around us and I already have one of your hands occupied preventing you from using jutsu." Raising his free hand into hand signs he continued "While I do not have that problem. Water Style: Thousand Water Needles of Death!"

The surrounding water rose before separating into needles and Sasuke's eyes widened as they reoriented themselves to attack him.

Haku quickly disengaged as the needles shot at their target while Sasuke's eyes widened before narrowing as he focused chakra into his legs and shot up into the air before the needles could turn him into a pin cushion.

As Haku tried to figure out where Sasuke went, Naruto was looking up at Sasuke in the air and thought 'Well at least he took something away from Kakashi-sensei's lessons.'

Haku suddenly heard the sound of shuriken approaching from above him and back flipped away from where Sasuke threw them at him only to nearly run into Sasuke's kunai from when he had used his speed to try and get the drop on the fake hunter nin.

'H-he's fast!' Haku thought as he quickly blocked with a senbon needle before Sasuke back handed him sending him flying.

Sasuke smirked arrogantly and said "I'll admit that you're fast. But I'm faster."

Haku merely cocked his head before he made one handed hand sings again. The water once again rose up, but this time, instead of forming needles, they began forming thin slabs.

Where Naruto was standing a short distance a way, his eyes widened as the infrared images of two cold rectangles that his Flygon clones had spotted suddenly made sense now. Naruto began paying even more attention than he had been to the fight since things were beginning to pick up even more speed it seemed.

"Ice Style: Demon Crystal Ice Mirrors!"

Meanwhile, Sasuke was completely caught off guard when the mirrors quickly surrounded him in a dome although he wasn't too worried about them. After all, what could a few mirrors do besides show how good looking he was?

Scoffing at Haku who had quickly walked into one of the mirrors earning a raised scaled eyebrow from Naruto, the Uchiha said in an arrogant tone, "And just what exactly are these supposed to do against me?"

Haku simply rose a hand up that held senbon needles up as images appeared in all the mirrors and said "You shall see."

Kakashi VS Zabuza

Kakashi was having a bit better luck against Zabuza. With Chameleon's Sunny Day still up, Zabuza couldn't use his Hidden Mist Jutsu to play predator hide and seek and so like their students, the two were constantly clashing at each other with their weapons of choice with the occasional jutsu every once in a while.

As Kakashi dodged an overhead strike of Zabuza's ridiculously large blade and jumped out of the way, he risked a glance over and noticed the dome of mirrors with Sasuke in them and Naruto just standing to the side.

'What is Naruto thinking? Oh well, maybe if Sasuke gets a little bruised before he steps in it'll teach him a little humility.'

Right after that thought was finished he jerked his head down to avoid the horizontal swing Zabuza took as said former Mist nin growled out "Better focus Kakashi! I'm your opponent remember. Although I do have to wonder why your other student isn't helping that arrogant one. I didn't think you Leaf ninjas had the heart to teach your wannabe ninjas lessons out in the field that way."

Kakashi managed to shrug as the two locked blades and said "Naruto always was one to do things differently."

Zabuza rose a hairless eyebrow before adding more pressure for the briefest of moments before jumping back in an attempt to upset Kakashi's balance as he ran through a chain of hand seals and called out "Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu!"

The water dragon rose from the water under the bridge and rushed towards Kakashi who had stumbled, but before it could wash the scarecrow away, a shout of "Flamethrower!" rang out and a stream of fire impacted the dragon causing it to die out in a quick cloud of steam.

"What!" Zabuza shouted before turning to see the transformed blond turning back from their battle with a shadow clone out that was already halfway to his sensei who had obviously been the one to fire the attack.

Once the clone reached Kakashi, it said "You alright there Kakashi-sensei?"

Kakashi nodded and said "Yeah, Thanks for the assist although I would have probably been fine, still glad for it. Think you could turn into something that could move a little bit faster?"

The clone cocked its head and said "Sure thing. But should I focus on blades or fire attacks?"

Kakashi rose an eyebrow before he remembered the Gallade the original had turned into before and said "If you think you can handle a sword fight than go with blades. I don't want to have to be constantly hopping around flames if I can help it."

The clone nodded and made a hand sign before being covered in smoke causing Zabuza to stiffen. However, while both Jounin were expecting to see the green, purple, and white colors of a Gallade, they were surprised to instead see the brown and white colors of a new rock water hybrid that Naruto had never shown the others before.

The Pokemon stood at a height of four foot three with a broad arrow shaped head and a white chest that gave the false impression that it was padded instead of firm. It's arms were weirdly shaped having no hands but looking like a pair of scythes. Its legs ended in two toes and reminded the two Jounin of a Praying Mantis' legs.

"What on earth is that?" Zabuza asked as his eyes widened.

The clone seemed to smirk before it said "Kabutops: a water rock hybrid type shellfish Pokemon that went extinct way before the others did."

The clone then blurred as it shot forward and Zabuza barely brought his decapitating blade up in time to block the clone's swing. Sparks flew as the blade from the sword clashed with the transformed clone's arm blade before the other clone's arm came in and nearly took Zabuza's head off before the man jumped away. As he did, the man began cursing under his breath. Things were beginning to look bad and the original still hadn't made any actual moves yet.

And then Kakashi stepped in making his problems even worse with a low powered grand water dragon of all things slamming into the former Kiri Anbu while he was still in the air. As Zabuza slammed into the bridge he was pushed along until he hit a pile of I beams while Kakashi kept chakra pouring into the technique to keep the man pinned down in hopes to drown the man before to his surprise the clone jumped right up and into the rushing water and shot off towards their opponent.

With Zabuza, he was trying to push himself into a position to get out of the torrent of water when he saw a figure coming at him through it at rapid speeds. Before Zabuza could do more than widen his eyes, the figure resolved into the Kabutops and slammed its arms into Zabuza's shoulders pinning the man to the I beams and forcing the man to open his mouth in a scream of pain letting out a gasp of air. Zabuza glared at the clone as he tried to lift his arm with his sword to swing at it. The clone noticed Zabuza's sword arm twitch and its eyes narrowed before it jerked its arms down completely tearing apart the Demon of the Mist's lower shoulders.

Zabuza let out another scream into the torrent of water that was still pushing against them before kicking the shellfish Pokemon away. As the hybrid type reoriented itself, Kakashi reached the point of too little chakra to maintain his jutsu and so dropped the jutsu and saw the damage the clone had did. As both Jounin panted a little to get their breath, the Kabutops was already moving to finish the job when they heard clapping coming from end of the bridge near where all the water had just returned to the ocean.

Meanwhile Back Near Sasuke VS Haku

Naruto had made it a point to keep an eye on both fights so when Zabuza had started running through hand signs and Kakashi had stumbled his hands were already in the necessary position as well. Pushing chakra into the hand sign, the clone instantly appeared and let loose it's Flamethrower attack and Naruto nodded his head as he returned his attention back to the ice dome where Sasuke was currently being turned into a pin cushion.

His clone would be able to tell him if he needed to do more to help his sensei, right now, Sasuke would probably be the one who needed the most action from the original. At first, Naruto had been worried that Haku would just kill Sasuke with a needle straight to the neck but it seemed that Haku's nature wouldn't allow him to finish a fight that way.

Wasn't stopping the boy from enjoying turning the arrogant prick into a pincushion though and Naruto had to admit that he was secretly enjoying it as well. He would step in if with a quick replacement if things got to out of hand though.

A memory from one of Naruto's clones dispelling caused his head to twitch over towards Tazuna's house momentarily before he began chuckling. It seems that Kakashi was right to have Tazuna bring his family so that the three could wait at the foot of the bridge. Naruto's clones had apparently just taken out two of Gato's henchmen in a pretty funny way.

'Gotta love a Jynx's kiss.' Naruto thought to himself as he received the memories of the clone that dispelled telling him that the swordsmen were currently tied up tighter than a rope at a knot tying convention and in one of the villagers' houses with the villagers discussing what to do with them.

Tazuna's House Ten Minutes Ago

The door to the house was suddenly sliced to pieces as the two swordsmen appeared in the doorway drawing a gasp from the woman that they thought was Tsunami when she saw them.

"Old man Tazuna's Daughter right? Sorry, but you're coming with us." Said the man with the cap as he began walking forward.

As the two men entered the kitchen they heard "Mama, what's going on?"

They turned to see Inari and smirked and the one with the eye patch asked "Should we grab him too?"

The other shook his head and said "We only need one hostage."

A sudden popping sound of smoke grabbed both swordsmen's attentions though and they turned back to see 'Tsunami' covered in smoke.

"What the?" was the only thing the two could get out before the man with the eye patch's face was grabbed by a short woman with straw like hair and a purple face and kissed on the lips before his face turned purple and he fell unconscious.

His partner barely had time to put his hand on his sword before he was spun around by the transformed 'Inari' and met the same fate.

The two transformed clones then dropped their transformations and began tying up their prisoners for transport to hand over to the villagers.

(I got this idea from the first season of Pokemon when the gang went to the North Pole to help Santa. A Jynx there kept kissing Brock and his face would always turn purple before he would pass out.)

Back With Sasuke VS Haku

Sasuke was currently still trapped in the dome of ice mirrors that Haku had put him in. Senbon needles were currently sticking out all over him and he felt like crap but he was starting to slowly but surely figure out the technique he was caught in.

"You should give up. I don't want to kill you." Haku said from his position in the mirror in front of the emo.

"Shut up!" Sasuke shouted at the masked boy. "I'm an Uchiha! We are the elites! We can not be beaten!"

Haku cocked his head before images once again appeared in all of the mirrors and the needles flew again riddling the so called elite with even more needles.

Haku was about to say something to contradict the elite statement when Naruto did it for him.

"Hey Sasuke! You look like you could use some rest. Want to tag?"

Sasuke's eyes bulged before he looked over at the transformed figure and shouted out "NO! Stay out of this you DEAD LAST! This is MY fight! You hear me?"

"Yeesh! Alright already, I just thought you could use a little help, that's all." Naruto said.

Behind his mask, Haku smirked and thought 'That arrogant fool, he should have let Naruto help him. Now I can simply take my time and continue turning him into a human porcupine.' Once again needles flew and Sasuke fell to the floor inadvertently pushing some of the needles in his front in further earning a low pained groan from him.

"So much for the Uchihas being the elites." Haku said as he raised his hand ready to send another barrage down.

Sasuke growled when he heard that and began slowly lifting himself up. But just when the next wave of needles were about to hit the still rising Uchiha, they all suddenly turned into pink balls with hands and feet that were just under two feet tall with blue eyes that all dog piled into him sending him back to the ground with an indignant cry of pain from having more of the needles pressed into his body. That was the last straw for the Uchiha and he passed out to blissful unconsciousness underneath the pile of Jigglypuffs.

Haku meanwhile was staring at the now giggling fluff balls who were still piled up on the Uchiha's body before he was brought out of his shock by the sound of one of his mirrors nearly shattering. As Haku's head jerked over to the mirror where the original Naruto was, he saw that the mirror was almost completely destroyed by the punch the Tyranitar body produced. As the mirror began repairing itself using Haku's chakra, the ice user heard the blond mutter "Oh no you don't, Flamethrower!"

The last part was shouted out and a stream of fire slammed into the mirror for a moment before dying down revealing that while it was still there, it was just barely. Naruto reared back his arm and let fly another punch and completely shattered the mirror as it tried to repair itself and walked through before the mirror began to reform itself.

As Naruto walked into the dome of ice mirrors he glanced over at the pile of Jigglypuffs and said "Alright guys, I know he's comfortable, but you've got a job to do."

Haku smirked behind his mask as the Jigglypuffs "ah"ed before making hand signs and were covered in smoke. Once it cleared, it revealed a dome of Metangs covering the Uchiha's unconscious body with their arms pointing outwards at the ice mirrors. Haku noticed that there were a considerably smaller number of clones than before but just figured that Naruto had dispelled the clones that he hadn't needed.

Naruto nodded when he saw that the Metang dome was in place and said "Now then Haku, we can do this the easy way, or the hard way."

Haku frowned behind his mask and said "I'm sorry Naruto. But I must obey Zabuza's orders."

Naruto sighed and said, "I was afraid of that. Fire Blast!"

The five pronged star of fire shot out of Naruto's mouth and slammed into the mirror that Haku had been in leaving absolutely nothing left as the intense heat melted even the concrete underneath. As the fire raged on one of the other mirrors shimmered before water shot out and slammed into Naruto's side earning a grunt from Naruto as the water shifted him a bit before he opened his mouth and let loose a Flamethrower into the water stream turning it into steam that quickly blew away.

As Haku's image appeared in the rest of the mirrors that he still had while the other two began to reform, Naruto said "Just give up Haku! I can go at this all day!"

"I already said that I can't." Haku said before launching a senbon needle towards Naruto's head aiming for the eye which was the only soft target on a Tyranitar's body. Naruto merely turned his neck and the needle bounced off of the hard skin over the eye.

Naruto sighed and said "I didn't want to do this Haku, but since I really don't want to be here all day, you give me no choice. Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

When the smoke cleared, Haku was looking at one Tyranitar for each of his mirrors, there was even one standing on the top of the Metang dome. He was starting to get nervous when each of the large Pokemon rose their hands into hand signs and all called out "Transform!"

The clones and original were all covered in smoke, but before it could clear and reveal what he had turned into, Haku heard shouts come from each smoke cloud.

"Fire Spin!"

Blasts of fire shot out of the smoke cloud before wrapping around the ice mirrors turning into fire tornadoes that began melting them after a minute with Haku trapped in one of the higher mirrors. Thinking quickly, he rushed out of the mirror and through the flames hoping to be able to put out any fire that his clothes caught once he got through only to be tackled by the original Naruto while he was in the air.

As the two landed on the ground with Naruto on top of Haku keeping him down with his front paws, he was able to get a good look at what Naruto and his clones had turned into as they stopped their technique leaving nothing but steam.

Naruto was currently a six foot three orange dog with black tiger stripes and burnt orange-white fur that covered his chest and most of his head leaving only his eyes and ears orange. Tufts of fur behind his legs gave it the slight appearance of his legs being on fire and his tail that was kept bent looked to be almost as long as his body.

The Arcanine on top of him growled and said "Enough Haku. I don't want to fight you either so knock it off!"

Before the ice user could say anything though, they heard clapping coming from the uncompleted end of the bridge.

Everyone on the bridge looked over towards the unfinished end of the bridge and saw a short man who had his arm in a cast clapping while a large group of about a hundred to two hundred thugs stood behind him.

The man stopped clapping and sneered at Zabuza and said "Some Demon of the Mist you turned out to be Zabuza! Couldn't even handle one Jounin and that creature of his. More like Baby of the Mist if you ask me."

"Gato! What is the meaning of this?" Zabuza asked as he stood up a little woozily from the blood dripping from both shoulders.

Gato smirked and said "Isn't it obvious? I'm here to finish what you couldn't. Oh and by the way, I never intended to pay you any way. Why pay so much for a missing nin when you can just hire a bunch of thugs to kill them after the job is done for a fraction of the price? Still even they aren't the cheapest so do kill a few before going down won't you?"

Turning to where the Arcanine pack was Gato said "Hey pooches! Go ahead and eat that brat. It'd be good payback for breaking my arm."

The original carefully got off Haku as he said "I've got a better idea, how about I just eat you instead?"

Gato's eyes widened as the original began walking towards him but one of the Arcanine clones said "Better not boss. Who knows where that guy's been. I say we just roast them."

The other Arcanine all nodded and the original said "Very well, but first, Kabutops! Tell the others to launch a strike at the end of the bridge to cut them off and then to bring Tazuna and his family here. I think he will want to see this."

The Kabutops clone nodded before being dispelled while Gato and his thugs were wondering just what the pack leader was talking about while getting nervous. Kakashi in the meantime was wondering if Naruto was actually planning on going through with his plan.

He got his answer as two Charizards flew overhead before launching Flamethrowers behind the thugs earning shouts of terror from them before the two large lizards came around and landed next to the Arcanine pack that had spread out forming a line between the thugs and everyone else.

As they landed, Gato tried to make a bid for his life and said "Listen, what would it take for you to let me go? Money, women? I could give you land, or power."

The original growled and said "You have nothing that I could possibly want Gato. You have done your absolute best to destroy this country to satisfy your own greed and now it's time for you to pay the price."

Kakashi stepped up to the line and said "Naruto, don't do this. Let them face justice instead. Don't lower yourself to his level."

The original looked over his shoulder to his sensei and said "This would be justice Kakashi-sensei. But I'll let Tazuna have final say. In fact, here he comes now."

Kakashi nodded and stepped back and looked as the rest of the platoon of clones came with Tazuna and his family as well as Sakura riding the larger fire types.

As they dismounted, Sakura began looking around frantically and said "Where's Sasuke?"

The original glanced over at the Metang dome and said "Oh right, forgot about him. Alright guys, you can get off him now. I don't think Haku's going to be sticking him with any more needles any more." Glancing over to the ice user he said low enough for Sakura not to hear "Shame."

Haku chuckled as the Metangs all floated out of their position before taking up positions above the fire line where the platoon and Naruto's partners had joined the line and transformed into Flygons and began flying in place. Sakura meanwhile took one look at Sasuke's condition and screamed out "Sasuke!" Before looking to Haku and shouted out "What did you do to him?"

Haku shrugged and said "We were fighting at the time, what did you expect would happen?"

Meanwhile as this was going on Kakashi was explaining what was going on to Tazuna asking him what he wanted done with Gato and the thugs.

"So what do you want to do with them Tazuna? Their fate is in your hands now." Kakashi said.

Tazuna gained a hard look as he stared at the men and Gato in particular who was looking extremely nervous and said "I would like nothing better than for them to suffer. But that would make me no better than them. We'll put them on trial and make sure they see justice."

Kakashi nodded and was about to give Naruto orders but Naruto showed that he didn't need them. Turning to Ivysaur, the original said "Ivysaur, make them go to sleep for a while."

Ivysaur nodded and walked forward to stand in front of the line before using its Sleep Powder attack causing all of the thugs to fall to sleep. Gato's reign of terror was officially over.


	10. The Chunnin Exams Begin!

10. The Chunnin Exams Begin!

Story Begins: Tazuna's Bridge

Kakashi sighed as he put out the fire at the end of the bridge with low level water dragons before turning to see Naruto transformed as strange grass type that had a large tail that looked like it was made out of ferns and seeds growing out of its back healing Zabuza's shoulders with his modified Synthesis 'attack'.

As that was happening, Naruto's clones dropped their transformations and helped the villagers tie up Gato and his thugs and began carrying them off the bridge to warehouses where they would be held until they would be dealt with.

Tazuna walked up and ran a critical eye over the bridge and sighed before saying "Well, there was some damage done to the bridge due to the fire obviously, but thankfully, none of it is structural. With Naruto's clones helping us we can make repairs easily and still finish right on schedule in a couple of weeks like planned."

Kakashi nodded and said "That's good to hear."

Both turned as they saw an untransformed Naruto and a fully healed Zabuza who was moving his shoulders around as the two walked towards them.

"You sure got lucky with this one Kakashi. Shadow clones, ability to transform into virtually anything he wants, and a medic to boot. In a few years I just might have to pay the Leaf to send him to come give me a hand with a few things once I get everything ready." Zabuza said.

Kakashi chuckled good naturally and said "I'll tell Lord Hokage to expect a mission request from you in the future in my report then." He then turned serious as he said "So what are your plans for now?"

Zabuza rose a hand to his chin and rubbed it before saying "Hm, well for starters, I'm thinking of grabbing what Gato owes me from that place he owns on this island, maybe a little bit extra if you know what I mean. You're welcome to join me. After that, I think it's best if Haku and I make tracks as soon as possible. It's best if we don't stay around in one spot for too long."

Kakashi and the others nodded before Zabuza called Haku over and the two Jounin and the ice user took off to where Gato's mansion was.

Scene Change Tazuna's Bridge Two Weeks Later

Team 7 was standing in front of Tazuna's family and the rest of the village as they said their final good byes.

"Thanks again for everything you did. Especially you Naruto. You have no idea exactly how much of a difference your clones made in getting the bridge done as fast as you did."

Naruto smiled and nodded while Sasuke fumed at how Naruto was once again getting praise.

'Damn it! It's always the Dead Last! I was so close to getting my Sharingan on the bridge back there during that fight, I'm sure of it, and then he steps in and ruins it! And now he gets all the praise! I should be the one being congratulated not him.'

Naruto was currently ignoring the glare that Sasuke was giving him while Kakashi was mentally frowning. Sakura of course was daydreaming about her Sasuke.

Naruto glanced over to Inari and said "Remember what I told you alright Inari?"

The boy nodded and said "I'll try Naruto."

Naruto smiled and said "That's all I ask."

"Well now, I guess we better get going then." Kakashi said as he turned to start walking.

"Actually Kakashi-sensei, I think I can get us home a bit faster than if we walk home." Naruto said grinning sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Oh, and how's that Naruto?" Kakashi asked as he turned to look at the blond beginning to have a bad feeling on the inside.

Naruto was still rubbing the back of his head as he said "Well you see, while my clones had been working on the bridge, I figured out how to use another skill that Psychic types used called Teleport. If they were ever at a location before, they could instantly teleport there. I had thought it would be a good thing to learn so that way we could get home quicker once we finish our missions."

Kakashi rose an eyebrow and thought 'That's certainly useful.' He then sighed and said "I really wish you would tell me when you learn these things Naruto. Alright, go ahead. Just make sure we end up at the main gates of the village and not somewhere else."

Naruto grinned not noticing the glare that Sasuke was giving him before he made a hand sign and transformed into an Alakazam.

"Right! Now then, everyone put a hand on unless you want to walk home." The transformed blond said and the other three quickly did as instructed before Naruto closed his eyes and focused on picturing the main gates of the Village Hidden in the Leafs. Specifically, the spot right in front of the sign in booth. Then he just let the Alakazam's natural psychic powers go to work as he called out "Teleport!" Team 7 was covered in a blue light before they vanished without a trace drawing sounds of amazement from everyone else.

"That was amazing." One villager breathed out earning murmurs of agreement from the others before they all shook themselves out of their shock and one asked Tazuna "Hey Tazuna! What are you going to name the bridge?"

Tazuna grinned and said "I'm glad you asked. I put a lot of thought into it, and only one name seems to fit considering all he's done for us. The Great Naruto Bridge!"

Scene Change Hidden Leaf Village Main Gates

It was another boring day for Izumo and Kotetsu as they had guard duty as they laid down at the sign in booth with their heads on their hands just staring out at nothing in particular.

That is until three members of Team 7 and some weird four foot eleven brown bipedal fox like creature holding two spoons appeared in a flash of blue light right in front of their faces causing both Chunnin's eyes to widen as they both fell backwards.

"Gaah!"

"Thump"

"Crash!"

Sakura and Sasuke both sweat dropped at the two Chunnin who were shakily standing up while Naruto burst out laughing dropping the transformation unable to keep it under proper control as he fell down laughing while holding his stomach. Kakashi merely rose an eyebrow at the two Chunnin who were still trying to get their breathing under control from suddenly having a Gennin team and their Jounin sensei suddenly appear right in front of them right out of the blue like that. Quite literally in this case too.

"Hatake Kakashi and Gennin Team 7 retuning from C-rank mission to Land of Waves."

"R-right. Just sign in and head on through." Kotetsu said eyeing Naruto warily knowing that the blond was somehow responsible for all of this but having no clue whatsoever how.

Said blond was still lightly chuckling to himself as he and Kakashi walked into the mission briefing room so Kakashi could give his report. God, he wish he had a camera so he could have taken a picture of their faces at the time.

"Ah, Kakashi, welcome back. I take it your mission was successful?" Sarutobi asked as he and Iruka spotted the two coming in after the Jounin in front of them left the mission desk.

Kakashi nodded and said "Yes. In more ways than one, although there were a few complications as well."

Chunnin and Hokage both rose an eyebrow and Sarutobi said "Please explain."

Kakashi nodded again and said "Of course. As you know, our mission was to escort Tazuna home to the Land of Waves until he finished his bridge-"

An hour later Kakashi was done giving his report and Sarutobi was studying Naruto intently.

"So let me get me this straight Naruto. As long as you have been to a place, you can turn into one of these Psychic types and use this Teleport and go there instantly?"

Naruto nodded and Sarutobi sighed as he massaged his forehead and said "The council is going to have a field day when they hear of this. It sounds exactly like the Fourth Hokage's Hirashin Jutsu."

Naruto shook his head and said "At first glance maybe. But it's not a battle technique, it's a traveling one. It was actually used by Abras and other wild Pokemon that could use it to escape battle. There is no way to use it multiple times quick enough to use it effectively in battle anyway since it takes at least a second or two to activate. Now the Extreme Speed attack, that is one that could possibly be compared to the Hirashin, even if it slightly. Although I'm nowhere near ready to learn how to perform anything on that level yet."

Sarutobi nodded and said "I see. Well, regardless, congratulations on finally learning on how to perform Pokemon attacks and good luck on learning the rest in a timely manner. The same goes to your partners evolving. Now then, your payment for the mission will be in your accounts by tomorrow. Kakashi, give your team the next few days off, I think they've earned it, don't you?"

"Of course Lord Hokage" Kakashi said as the two shinobi bowed at the dismissal and left the room leaving the old man with a bit to think about until the next shinobi came in with her report.

Time Skip: One Month Later Naruto's Apartment (Author's Notes: In the time between Wave and the Chunnin Exams, the council had Kakashi help Sasuke unlock his Sharingan.)

Naruto woke up and stretched in his bed and smiled at his partners who were all curled up next to him. It had been interesting seeing the furniture store owner's reactions when he asked if he could get his sheets with fire proof seals for the then Charmander to sleep with him. But when he had showed his partners the man had agreed it would be necessary.

Now the four were sleeping in an even bigger bed from the same store that could hold all four. Naruto was kind of scared about going back when his partners evolved again but Sarutobi had told him that he would help cover the cost for a new bed when the time came when Naruto had confided with his grandfather figure a couple of weeks ago.

After watching his partners sleep for a couple of more minutes, Naruto said "Alright guys, time to get up."

The three Pokemon all yawned and began stretching like cats before all four began their daily routines.

Scene Change: Hidden Leaf Village Streets One Hour Later

Naruto was making his way to the bridge where Team 7 would usually meet up for missions when he sensed a familiar presence and looked back and spotted a mop of pink hair running to catch up to him.

"Naruto, wait up!" Sakura shouted before she caught up to the blond and slowed down to match paces with her blond teammate who hadn't changed pace at all. After a moment of silence she asked "So do you think we'll get another C-rank today?"

Naruto shrugged before stopping and said "You know Konohamaru, rocks normally aren't square."

Sakura looked at him like he was crazy but turned around as he did just in time to see a painted cardboard box that was behind them blow up in smoke.

The smoke blew away revealing three kids who were coughing from all the smoke as one of the kids said "I think we used to much gun powder Konohamaru."

Naruto shook his head and said "That's not the only thing you guys did wrong. First of all. Like I said, rocks aren't square. Second, they don't move. If you're going to be following a moving target, use better camouflage. Now then Konohamaru, who are your friends?"

The third's grandson smiled and said "These are Undon and Moegi. And together, we're the Konohamaru Corps!"

Naruto smirked and said "So what are you three up to?"

Moegi put her hands together and said "Naruto, will you play ninja with us please?"

Sakura rose an eyebrow and said "A ninja playing 'ninja'? Are you kidding?"

Konohamaru and the other two finally noticed Sakura and he said "Hey boss, who's this chick? Your girlfriend?"

Naruto and Sakura's eyes widened and Naruto said "What, are you insane?"

Sakura was a bit more vocal.

"Why would I go out with this idiot when I could go out with Sasuke?"

Konohamaru looked at her funny and said "Sasuke?" Turning to Naruto, he said "Isn't he that prince of emos that's on your team that you were telling me about?"

Naruto's eyes widened as Sakura's own narrowed dangerously before he said "Run guys!"

"What? Why?" Konohamaru asked before seeing a dark aura surround the kunoichi and the four took off running with Naruto keeping himself in between his teammate and the four academy students.

Now some of you may be wondering why Naruto was running from his teammate when he could easily just transform into a Pokemon and beat her senseless right? Well the answer is simple. When Sakura gets angry enough, she gets stronger than Tsunade herself and right now she was down right pissed.

"Naruto! You get back here and take your punishment like a man!"

See what I mean?

The three academy students turned around a corner and Naruto was right behind them when Konohamaru suddenly slammed into an older teen who was wearing a black cat suit with a mummified figure with a brown mop of hair sticking out and fell backwards.

Undon and Moegi were slightly behind Konohamaru and so were able to stop before running into the boy and the blond girl with a large fan on her back who was next to him while Naruto skid to a stop behind them. Sakura meanwhile came around the corner and was about to say something before stopping as well when she saw what was happening.

"Ow, that hurt you brat!" The boy said as he grabbed Konohamaru by his shirt collar and hoisted him up.

"Kankoru, stop making a scene." The girl said.

"Don't worry Temari, I'm just going to teach this boy a lesson." The boy said.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you. Now put him down." Naruto said with a dangerous tone in his voice as he began walking past the other two academy students towards the two older teens who he noticed both had the logo for the Sand village on their head bands.

'Sand shinobi then. Wonder what their doing here? Sensei was probably bringing political documents for the Hokage. Still gives them no right to pick on Konohamaru though.' Naruto thought.

The boy holding Konohamaru sneered and said "Oh yeah, and what are you going to do to stop me brat?"

Naruto smirked before making a hand sign and said "Transform!"

The resulting smoke cloud put both Sand shinobi on edge, but nothing prepared them for the brown blur that rushed out or the foot that slammed into the older teen's chest sending him flying as an arm grabbed Konohamaru keeping him from harm. The boy went flying for a good ten feet before landing and skidding another five before stopping as everyone else got a look at what Naruto had turned into as he calmly put Konohamaru down.

Naruto was currently a Hitmonlee. A four foot eleven mostly brown figure with long legs that looked like they could do some serious damage.

Naruto dropped the transformation before as Konohamaru said "Wow boss, that was so cool!"

Naruto merely smirked and said "Thanks Konohamaru. Hey Sasuke, you just going to lounge around up there all day? And don't think I don't know you're up there either coon boy. I can smell the blood on you as well."

Everyone's eyes widened as Naruto looked up at the tree that was beside the road towards the two figures while Sasuke began wondering how someone could sneak up on him without him noticing like that. The two Sand ninja on the other hand.

"G-Gaara. When did you get here?" Kankoru asked the red head who was hanging upside down from the tree branch as he began getting up from where Naruto kicked him.

Gaara shot him a dispassionate look and said "Kankoru, you're a disgrace to our village. Shut up or I'll kill you."

Kankoru paled and instantly slammed his mouth shut as Naruto rose an eyebrow and thought 'Forget waking up on the wrong side of the bed. This guy looks like someone came in and threw his whole bed out the window with him still in it. Actually, it looks like he hasn't gotten any sleep for a month at least.'

He barely registered Sasuke hopping down towards him in an exaggerated manner trying to act like something special or Sakura glomping the Uchiha scion although when the redhead disappeared in a whirlwind of sand and reappeared in another beside the blond girl his eyebrow shot right back up.

"Well that's certainly cool." Naruto muttered to himself earning a small nod from Konohamaru who was still by his side.

The red head studied the blond that was standing across from him and said in a sandy voice that matched his apparent control over sand "What is your name?"

Sasuke walked forward arrogantly thinking that the redhead was talking to him and said "Sasuke Uchiha."

Gaara's eyes flickered over to the Uchiha briefly before returning to Naruto and said "Not you, him."

Sasuke sneered and thought 'It's always the Dead Last!'

Naruto rose an eyebrow and said "Naruto Uzumaki. Yours?"

"Gaara of the desert. I apologize for my brother's behavior. It won't happen again."

Naruto nodded and said "Apology accepted. If you don't mind me asking though, what are you guys doing here?"

"We're here for the Chunnin Exams. I'm Temari by the way." The blond haired girl said.

Naruto rose an eyebrow again and said "Chunnin Exams? I thought those weren't for another month. Huh, well good luck then."

Temari nodded before Gaara said "Kankoru, Temari, we are leaving. I look forward to seeing you again Naruto Uzumaki."

"Likewise Gaara." Naruto said as he watched the three Sand shinobi turn and walk down the street. Turning to Konohamaru and his friends he said "Do me a favor and keep your head down for the next few months Konohamaru. With foreign shinobi in the village you never know what could happen if a prank goes wrong."

"Right boss!" Konohamaru said before the three kids took off running the other way leaving Naruto chuckling before Sasuke hmphed and began walking towards Team 7's meeting spot with Sakura right on his heels. Naruto shook his head before he said seemingly to no one "It just had to be one of those days huh guys?"

On his belt, his three Pokeballs vibrated in agreement as he began walking after his teammates.

Scene Change Team 7 Meeting Spot

Team 7 was currently waiting at a bridge that spanned across a channel waiting for their sensei so that they could missions like they usually did doing like they usually did while they waited.

Meaning that Sasuke was being the prince of emos as he brooded while Sakura tried to get a date while Naruto flipped through his Pokedex as he carried on a conversation with his partners who were relaxing around him.

A poof of smoke on one of the arches at the end of the bridge drew all six of their attention as Kakashi appeared in a crouch.

"Yo." Kakashi said with his customary eye smile and wave of his hand.

"You're late!" Sakura screamed out causing everyone to wince although they were pretty much used to it by now.

Before Kakashi could spout some excuse though, Naruto said "Jounin meeting discussing the Chunnin Exams I take it Kakashi-sensei?"

Sakura and Sasuke looked at Naruto like he was crazy while Kakashi merely rose an eyebrow.

"That's right Naruto. May I ask how you knew?"

Naruto shrugged and said "We ran into a Gennin team from the Hidden Sand village that was here for them. You can't always be late because you got lost on the road of life so it wasn't much of a stretch."

Kakashi chuckled and said "Fair enough." before taking out three pieces of paper and tossed them to his students before saying continuing "As it happens, I actually nominated you three, my bad, six to take those exams. If you think that your up to the challenge, report to room 301 at the Academy tomorrow at 4:00. Well, that's all, so see ya!"

And with that, he disappeared in a blur of speed leaving Naruto shaking his head as he said "Typical. Making us wait for hours only to leave two minutes later. Well, I don't know about you guys, but I'm definitely going to take this thing. Right guys?"

He said this last thing to his partners who nodded with determined looks in their eyes.

Sasuke smirked and said "You know Dead Last, for once I agree with you. You up for this Sakura?"

Sakura bit her lip for a minute but nodded and said "If you think we're ready than so do I."

Scene Change Naruto's Training Grounds Hokage Monument One Hour Later

Naruto and his partners were currently tearing through targets as Naruto's clones replaced targets. Naruto and a shadow clone were currently transformed as a Charmeleon and Warturtle shooting out Flamethrowers and Water Guns alongside his partners. Safely off to the side the Konohamaru corps was watching in awe as barrages of leafs and streams of water and fire tore through the flying disks.

The original suddenly stopped shooting Flamethrowers for a moment as a scent passed through his nose causing the others to stop as well.

As Warturtle asked him what was wrong, Naruto turned his head to the tree where he smelled the hidden person and said "Alright, I know you're there. So come out before I burn you out."

A ninja that looked to be about as old as Kakashi and Iruka wearing a straw hat with a metal plate on it that bore the four lines of the hidden Rain village on it stepped out from behind the tree. Held loosely in his hand was a chain that had a ball weight in his hand.

The man chuckled and said "I saw you and your teammates get your entry forms for the Chunnin Exams. Do you really think you have what it takes to become Chunnin? Hah? Don't make me laugh! Oh well, I might as well get rid of the competition now then later."

Naruto and his partners as well as his clone frowned before Naruto said "Guys keep Konohamaru and his friends safe. I'll deal with this clown. You too Warturtle."

His partners and clone nodded before rushing over to the three kids and took defensive positions while the original took a more offensive one and took a deep breath through his nose and grinned as he finally recognized what he was smelling.

'Looks like he wants to test me. Understandable considering he taught me and the others for a good four years. So no Barbequing. Oh well, old school it is then!'

"You know," Naruto said "Normally I'd just roast you and be done with it. But considering you're from the Rain village, you'd probably just use some water jutsu against me so why don't we go with something different eh? Transform!"

The usual smoke cloud surrounded the blond putting the 'Rain ninja' on guard. When it cleared, Naruto was standing at three foot eleven and had fur that was a combination of blue, black, and yellow. There were pointed ears at the top of his head and a pointed muzzle but what really got everyone's attention were the spikes that were in the Pokemon's hands and chest.

Seeing the widened eyes, Naruto smirked and said "Allow me to introduce you to Lucario, a Fighting, Steel type hybrid. Now then, lets get started."

The Lucario seemed to disappear before the 'Rain nin' suddenly went flying with the Lucario reappearing in its place, a blue aura surrounding it with its eyes closed and flaps behind its head raised.

Scene Change Leaf Market Place

Kakashi was standing on top of a roof over the deserted market place looking down on it when Iruka landed next to him rubbing his jaw.

"So? How did it go?" The scarecrow asked.

"Well, you were right. They all did quite well. I think Naruto knew it was me though. When I first showed up he was doing some kind of fire attack with his partners. But when we fought, he switched to a fighting type. Didn't stop him from kicking my ass though with those aura techniques of his. I'm going to be sore for a month I tell you."

Kakashi chuckled and said "I hear you. I remember the first time I fought him when he sparred with me as a Lucario. He actually managed to put me in the hospital with a broken arm. And that was before he could use that aura they used. Those things must have been truly something to have seen in a fight when they were still around."

"Yeah, I bet. I'm just glad he went easy on me. If the judges don't make him Chunnin in a month based off of his fighting skills, then they're insane." Iruka said.

Kakashi smirked and said "Agreed. Goodnight Iruka."

Scene Change Academy Entrance

Naruto walked up to the entrance of the academy with his partners safely in their Pokeballs and nodded to his teammates as the three began walking into the building. It was time to take the next step in their ninja careers.


	11. The First Exam

11. First Exam

As Team 7 reached the second floor of the academy, they noticed a large group of Gennin surrounding a doorway that had a sign that said 301 over it.

As he noticed the sign, Naruto rose an eyebrow and thought '301? But we only went up two flights. Huh, must be a test to make sure these guys actually belong here. Wonder how many of these guys are actually buying it and how many are simply playing along.'

Naruto was brought out of his thoughts as he heard his teammate say "Drop the Genjutsu. I know this isn't the third floor. Right Sakura?"

Naruto resisted the urge to slap a hand to his forehead as the other Gennin around them began muttering to themselves asking what he meant. Turning to his teammate, he instead said "You're an idiot Sasuke, you do know that right? You obviously have no idea what the word discretion means. This was obviously supposed to weed out those who weren't ready yet and you just go and run your mouth. Learn when to speak and when to pass through your opponents like the shadows we are supposed to be."

"Don't talk to Sasuke like that!" Sakura said about ready to bash Naruto on the head when one of the 'Gennin' suddenly moved faster than most of the others could keep up with and grabbed her arm and said "Your teammate gives good advice, you should listen to him."

The 'Gennin' was then covered in smoke revealing a larger version of the man who Naruto recognized as Kotetsu from the main gates. Looking towards the door at the other one, he saw him smirk and drop his transformation to reveal Izumo.

Izumo grinned and made the release sign and the numbers on the sign over the door spun together before reforming into 201.

Kotetsu released Sakura's arm and walked over to Naruto and said "It seems you were able to pass the first 'test' of the exams Naruto. Good luck on the others."

Naruto nodded and said "Thanks."

Kotetsu then turned to face Sasuke and said "I'd take your teammates advice if I were you. If you don't learn when it's best to keep quite about things, then you could end up getting someone killed. Well, see ya."

Both Kotetsu and Izumo disappeared in whirlwinds of leaves leaving a bunch of Gennin questioning what just happened while Sasuke grit his teeth and glared at Naruto who had already turned and began walking towards the third floor.

As he passed by a boy with long black hair and pale eyes marking him as a Hyuga, he heard, "I'm moderately impressed. It seems even the dead last can learn a few things here and there. But it is still your fate to fail."

Naruto kept walking but said over his shoulder "One of these days Neji, you will see that not every thing is set in stone. I just hope I'm there when that happens so that I get to see the look on your face when you finally find out how wrong you've been all these years."

Neji frowned as Naruto kept walking. As he did, Neji's teammates came up and the girl with buns in her hair said "Do you know him Neji?"

Neji's frown remained in place as he said "Yes Ten Ten. I have run into him in the village on occasion over the years. Come on, we should get going."

The other boy on the team, this one wearing green spandex and having a bowl hair cut and rather large eyebrows hummed to himself thoughtfully as he saw Naruto's teammates catching up to him and said "If it is alright with you two, there is something that I wish to do. Do not fear though, I shall rejoin you before the exam begins."

Ten Ten sighed but Neji allowed the smallest of smirks to grace his lips as he said "Very well then. Just don't be late Lee."

Lee gave a quick salute before quickly rushing off after Team 7.

Team 7 mean while was walking through the second floor gym towards the door on the other side when they heard someone call out to them from the balcony above them.

"Excuse me, may I have a word?"

The three turned to see an unusual sight standing in front of them in the form of the boy standing on the balcony as he stared down at them.

Naruto rose an eyebrow at the boy's appearance but shrugged and said "Sure, what do you need?"

The boy jumped down from the balcony and flipped forward before landing in a crouch. Rising up from it, he said, "It is customary to give your name to others before asking for theirs, so allow me to introduce myself. I am Rock Lee, the Hidden Leaf's handsome devil. I am aware of the so called rookie of the year, Sasuke Uchiha, and the number one kunoichi, Sakura Haruno, but I do not know the name of you my wise friend. May I please know your name?"

Lee finished his little speech pointing at Naruto while Sasuke was once again fuming since Lee had implied that he hadn't earned his title.

Naruto's eyebrow went right back up and he said "Naruto Uzumaki, the Hidden Leaf's Pokemon Trainer."

Confusion briefly passed through Lee's eyes before he shrugged it off and adopted a pose with his right arm out with his thumb up and said "Naruto Uzumaki, I challenge you to a fight! Let us see who's flames of youth burn the brightest!"

Naruto cocked his head as he glanced at the clock on the nearby wall and saw that they had thirty minutes. Seeing this, he looked back and said "Sure, we've got twenty minutes to kill I guess."

Lee smirked as Sakura gained a worried look and said "Naruto, you aren't actually thinking of fighting this guy are you? What if we get in trouble?"

Naruto shook his head and said "Relax Sakura, it's just a friendly spar."

Lee nodded and then a thoughtful look crossed his face as he glanced toward Sakura and said "Sakura, if I win, well you go out with me?"

Sakura's eyes widened as Naruto snorted trying not to laugh before she shouted out "No! Why would I go out with someone with eyebrows like those?"

Lee grew dejected and Naruto said "Ah, don't worry about it Lee. Now let's get started. Transform!"

Smoke covered Naruto's body before it dispersed revealing a tall figure of six foot three that was predominately red with a white mane and yellow feet.

Lee blinked in surprise and said "What on earth is that?"

Naruto smirked and said "This is what sets me apart from others Lee. I use the way I use the transformation justu to transform into whatever I want to be able to be closer to my partners. Now allow me to introduce you to Blaziken, a Fire and Fighting hybrid type that was said to be able to clear a 30 story building in a single leap. Lets see how well you can handle it."

Lee blinked before grinning and settling into a Taijutsu stance that Naruto was not familiar with and said "Yosh! Let our flames of youth clash!"

And with that, Lee charged at Naruto faster than Team 7 expected and launched a flying kick at Naruto.

"Leaf Hurricane!"

Naruto grabbed the extend foot with his right hand and swung around before launching the spandex wearing boy into the air and leaped after him moving for an ax kick that was blocked by Lee's arms. Lee was pushed down towards the floor but was able to flip himself in time to land on his feet. He quickly looked up at Naruto who was starting to fall and smirked before pushing off with his legs up towards the hybrid Pokemon throwing a quick right punch that was deflected with Naruto's left hand before Naruto's right leg came in towards Lee's ribs.

Lee quickly blocked with his left knee and pushed off and the two separated before landing on the floor about five feet apart smiling at each other.

"You're pretty good Lee." Naruto said as he shifted into a loose offensive stance.

"Thank you Naruto. It seems you are an excellent fighter yourself. However, up until now, I was merely testing you. Now the real fight begins!"

And without further warning, Lee blurred straight at Naruto faster than he thought possible for someone wearing the weights he had felt when he first threw the older boy. Naruto had to quickly begin backpedaling as his arms were constantly moving blocking punches and kicks as he was forced to move closer and closer to his team.

Finally when he was no more than ten feet away from them, he said "Sorry about this Lee, I can tell you prefer Taijutsu but I'd rather use this, Fire Punch!"

Naruto's right fist began to burn a little as he poured chakra into it and he then slammed it into Lee with everything he had as Lee raised his arms in an x to block the attack sliding back a good ten feet while his bandages began to lightly smoke.

Naruto frowned as he looked at his fist and said "Damn, still can't get that one right. Oh well, it was just meant to give me some breathing room anyway."

Lee waved both his arms stopping them from smoking and grinned as he said "To manifest your flames of youth in such a way, you are truly a worthy opponent Naruto." He then began unwrapping the bandages on his arms as he said lowly "Forgive me Gai-sensei, but it seems, in order to win this quickly I will have to use that!"

'What is he going on about?' Naruto wondered before Lee shot at him even faster than before and got under Naruto's guard before he could react, going low to the floor and kicking Naruto's chin sending him into the air with a cry of "Leaf Whirlwind!"

As Naruto's trajectory in the air peaked, Lee appeared behind him and Naruto turned his head as he sensed him.

Grinning, he said "You're pretty fast even with those weights Lee."

Lee grinned and said "Thank you Naruto, however, I'm afraid, it's over."

As Lee's bandages began to move, Naruto's grin turned evil as he said "Are you so sure about that?"

Lee had just enough time to gain a confused look before Naruto shot his arm back and grabbed the spandex clad boy before positioning his legs over him and shouted out "Double Kick!"

Naruto's legs then slammed into Lee's body twice so fast it looked like they only kicked out once sending Lee crashing down onto the gym's floor.

Lee groaned as Naruto dropped his transformation in midair and landed next to his opponent. Leaning over him, he said "You alright Lee?"

Lee nodded and accepted the hand Naruto offered and said "That was a truly youthful match Naruto."

Naruto nodded before he noticed something that made him frown. Sasuke's Sharingan turning off and the emo smirking. Naruto wasn't too worried about him stealing anything from him while he was transformed since the Uchiha had no chance of ever transforming into a Pokemon, but Lee was another story.

But before he could worry about what the Uchiha had probably stolen from Lee, they heard a poofing sound and someone say in a dangerous tone of voice "Lee."

Everyone looked to see someone who Lee could have been a younger clone of if he had a Jounin vest on Standing on a Tortoise. Both Sakura and Sasuke shivered at how the older man's eyebrows were even bigger than Lee's.

"Gai-sensei!" Lee said, and Naruto caught the slight note of apprehension in his voice.

Gai gazed at Lee intently and said "Lee, I have warned you against using that move have I not. Given you explicit instructions regarding it haven't I?"

Lee, looked down and said "Yes, Gai-sensei."

Gai, frowned and said "Lee! You must be punished! Therefore, you shall run a thousand laps around the village!"

Lee looked up and said "Yes Gai-sensei!"

Sakura and Sasuke's eyes widened at that while Naruto cleared his throat drawing attention to him and said "Uh, as interesting as it would be seeing if Lee could actually do that, we have an exam to get to."

Gai blinked before grinning and said "That is correct my youthful friend! Now go and make the leaf proud with your flames of youth Lee!"

Lee saluted and said "Yes Gai-Sensei!"

Then Lee turned around and ran out the room so fast it left a dust trail after him. Naruto shook his head and said "Well now, that was interesting."

He suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder and he turned his head to see Gai looking down on him with a smile.

"I saw the whole fight young Uzumaki. Your flames of youth burn just as brightly as my young Lee. Good luck in the exams."

"Uh, thanks I guess." Naruto said before he took off after Lee with his teammates falling in behind.

As the three came to the real room 301, they found Kakashi leaning against the wall reading his book.

Looking up, he said "Oh, good, all three of you came. I was worried one of you wouldn't."

Naruto frowned and said "Why? What would have happened if one of us didn't show up?"

Kakashi shrugged and said "Then the other two wouldn't have been allowed to compete. This is a team thing."

"And you didn't tell us?" Sakura asked dangerously.

Kakashi chuckled while rubbing the back of his head and waved them in as he began walking past them causing Sakura to start muttering under her breath about no good teachers.

Naruto merely shook his head and walked to the doors and pushed them open before walking in taking notice of all the teams inside who had shifted to see the latest entries were.

Sakura flinched as Sasuke and Naruto met their gazes coolly causing most of them to shrug and go back to their previous conversations.

That all changed though when everyone heard a shout of "Sasuke-kun!" followed by said emo being glomped by Ino.

"Did you miss me Sasuke-kun? I know I did." Ino said from her position draped over the Uchiha.

Sakura gained a tick mark and shouted "Get of him Ino-pig! Sasuke's mine!"

As the two fan girls began having one of their bickering matches, Naruto heard a muttered "Troublesome." and turned around to see Shikamaru and Chouji come through the doors.

"So your sensei nominated you guys as well for this? Man, what a drag." Shikamaru said.

"Well, looks like the entire gang's all here. This is going to be so awesome." Kiba said as he and the rest of Team 8 walked through the doors.

Hinata blushed at the sight of Naruto and said "H-hello Naruto. H-how have you been?"

Naruto gave a gentle smile and said "Been good Hinata, you?"

Hinata gave a small nod before looking down.

They were all brought out of their conversations by a voice saying "Geeze, keep it down will you?"

The rookies all turned to see an older Gennin standing behind them that had silver hair and was wearing glasses.

'This guy's good. I didn't even sense him coming.' Naruto thought with narrowed eyes.

"What do you want?" Kiba asked quite rudely.

"Well, I just thought I would tell you to keep it down. After all, you're drawing a lot of attention to yourself. Take a look."

The Gennin all glanced at the other Gennin and saw them all giving them death glares. Most of the rookie 9 began to get nervous while Sasuke didn't let it get to him and Naruto was simply used to it.

Looking at all of the Gennin assembled, Naruto cocked his head to the side before he focused on the feeling of power he always got when he transformed into a Fighting type and started to project the feeling outwards as intensely as he could. (Think of this as a modified version of killing intent that Naruto is trying.)

The effect was instantaneous as all eyes in the room instantly snapped over to him before everyone decided to look somewhere else.

The rookie 9 and Kabuto were the only ones who were still staring at him and Chouji said "What was that?"

Naruto simply shrugged and said "Just something I've wanted to try out." Looking back to Kabuto, he said "I'm sorry, we didn't get your name,"

"Kabuto, Kabuto Yakushi. Anyway, seeing as how you guys are obviously rookies, I thought I would help you guys out. Since I've done the exam a few times, I've managed to collect quite a bit of intel on it."

"Really, how many times have you taken the exam?" Sakura asked curiously.

Kabuto gained a sheepish look and said "Well, this well actually be my seventh time."

Kiba snorted and said "Seventh? Man, you must be weak!"

"Either that or he is missing something that the examiners think he needs to be a Chunnin." Naruto said.

Kabuto nodded and said "What he said. Anyway, like I said before, all those times taking the exams allowed me to gather a lot of information on them. Here take a look at these."

He then pulled out a deck of cards from his kunai holster and said "These are my ninja info cards, or ninfo cards for short. They are keyed to my chakra so that nobody can see them if I don't want them to. Here, take a look at this."

He then swiped out a blank card and placed it on the ground before pouring chakra into it causing a holographic map of the Elemental Countries with a three dimensional bar graph on it to appear.

"As you can see, this shows what countries are participating and how many Gennin they've sent. Obviously as the hosting village, we have the most occupants while on the flip side, a new village, the Hidden Sound, has sent only one team. No idea how good those guys will do since they're from a new village though."

The rookies all looked at the map before Sasuke said "Do you have information on individual participants?"

Kabuto smirked and said "Not everyone, obviously, but definitely those worth looking out for. I even have info on most of you guys since most of you belong to clans. Just give me a description or village and I can narrow it down."

Sasuke smirked and said "What do you have on Rock Lee and Gaara of the Desert?"

Kabuto pouted and said "Aw, you know their names? That's no fun."

As he pulled out the two cards and began explaining their stats, the three Gennin from Sound observed the group.

"So he doesn't think we're strong does he?" The spiky haired boy said dangerously.

"Let's show him just what the Sound is made of." The other boy, this one wrapped up like a mummy said before the three began moving through the Gennin.

Kabuto had just finished saying that Gaara had finished every mission without ever being injured when three gray blurs shot towards them.

Naruto briefly registered that they were pointed towards Kabuto and thought 'Let's see what these guys got.'

The mummy boy took a swing at Kabuto with his right arm and Naruto caught the sight of metal as Kabuto jumped back smirking as the punch clearly missed him before he frowned as his glasses suddenly shattered and he lurched over and threw up.

"What the-" Ino started.

"But that punch missed him, I saw it." Sakura said.

"Put this on your cards. Everyone of us is going to become Chunnin." The wrapped boy said with a smirk.

A line of smoke clouds appeared in the back of the room and a gruff voice said "Not if you attack another participant without our permission first your not you piece of snot."

The smoke cleared to reveal a line of Chunnin and a man in a black trench coat that Naruto recognized as belonging to the guys who worked in the I&T department.

The man grinned and all of the Gennin present felt a shiver travel down their spines as Team 7 was reminded of Zabuza as he said "Now then, my name's Ibiki Morino, and I'm the proctor for the first exam. Now then, turn in your forms, take a number and have a seat in the room behind us. The written exam is about to begin."

Everyone quickly did as told not wanting to get on the proctor's bad side. As Naruto took his number he noticed he was placed right next to Hinata near the end of a row towards the middle of the room.

"Alright settle down!" Ibiki shouted once everyone was at their seats. Once he had their attention, he said "Now pay attention, because I'm only saying this once. And no questions either. Rule number one! Each of you starts out here with ten points. The test has ten questions, each worth one point. For each question you get wrong, we subtract a point from you. Get all ten right, and you retain the ten points you have. But if, for example, you answer three questions incorrectly, we take your ten points.. … subtract one point for every wrong answer… and your total drops down to seven.

Rule number 2... This written test is still a team event. Passing or failing will be determined by the sum of the points held by three members of each cell. The object is for each team to have as few deductions as possible from its joint thirty point total."

Naruto felt Sasuke and Sakura's eyes on him and smirked knowing that they were glaring at him and worried for him respectively since he had threw quite a few tests in the academy to keep up the appearance of the Dead Last. He wasn't too worried though. He knew just as much as everybody else in the room did, maybe even more since he had occasionally sent a shadow clone to the library to just look through the various books there.

"Rule Number 3. If, during the course of the exam, a candidate does anything out of the ordinary… …in other words, anything that leads the proctors to determine that he or she has cheated… … we subtract two points from each member of the cheater's team."

"Last rule. If any individual loses all ten of his or her points, that person's entire cell, regardless of how the other two members do.. … will be disqualified!"

Naruto felt his two teammates' glares intensify and mentally shook his head at their lack of faith in him.

"You have one hour… starting, NOW!"

The room filled with the sound of over a hundred papers being flipped over and a good number of eyes widened as the Gennin saw the questions on the test.

'Holy crap.' Naruto thought once he had read through each one. 'I don't think I can answer any of these. Why would they give such hard questions to Gennin? And those rules don't make any sense either. Usually if you're caught cheating, you're automatically failed. It's almost as if they're actually testing your…cheating skills.'

Naruto's eyes briefly widened before they narrowed and he began thinking again. 'Ok, so the test isn't about what you know, it's about whether or not you can get information and not get caught doing it. Kind of dumb considering not everyone is cut out for that kind of thing but hey, what can you do right? Alright, enough about that, focus! Now there's got to be at least one plant in here that already has information for us to gather so I just have to wait for a little bit for him or her to put it on their test and then get it. Using the memory from my shadow clone is the obvious way to do that, but how do I do that without getting caught. Although Ibiki only said we'd be thrown out if we were caught five times not once so I don't have to be too subtle.'

Naruto grinned as he briefly pictured a shadow clone transformed as a Mankey running around the room causing havoc as it discreetly memorized answers off of test papers before dispelling.

He then shook his head and thought 'As fun as that would be, something tells me that I'd still get thrown out. My best shot would be to have the clone appear near the ceiling behind me and transform into a ghost type while the cloud is still around. Now which one should I use? Ah, I know!"

Ibiki meanwhile was enjoying watching the Gennin squirm before he noticed Naruto's brief grin and mentally frowned as he thought 'What is that brat up to?"

Thirty minutes had passed by and a number of teams had already been disqualified when Naruto decided that the plants had had enough time to put on a good enough show of working through the questions. Taking his pencil out of his mouth, Naruto brought both hands under the desk and formed a cross shape.

Next to him, Hinata frowned as she saw the action with her activated Byakugan and thought 'What is Naruto-kun doing? Should I help him?'

She decided against it though when she saw the blond push chakra into the hand sign since it looked like Naruto had only been waiting for the right time to get started to do whatever he was planning.

She didn't have time to wonder though when a poofing sound caught everyone's attention as a smoke cloud appeared over one Gennin's head up by the ceiling near the back of the room. Everyone looked at the smoke cloud in confusion as it dispersed before Ibiki barked at them to quit gawking and get back to their tests. As they did, no one noticed the transparent ball of gas that was about four feet big float down closer to the Gennin's heads and begin floating over the tests before passing through the wall leading outside five minutes later and disappearing in another cloud of smoke. (Whoever guesses what Pokemon Naruto just used first gets to choose which Pokemon he uses for combat recon to get Team 7's second scroll.)

Naruto quickly shifted through the answers he received before he began writing them down. As he did, Ibiki mentally frowned and thought 'So that cloud WAS him. But what did he do? I know his file says that he can use shadow clones and transform into some kind of creatures, but I didn't see anything come out. Or a second cloud that would give away a clone dispelling.'

Ibiki shook his head from those thoughts before looking at the clock and noticed that there was still ten minutes before the tenth question. He mentally sighed before upping the killing intent he had been constantly releasing in small increments to unnerve the Gennin and chuckling a little noticing the sweat trailing down one of the closer Gennin's brow as he tried to solve the ninth question.

Finally it was time for the tenth question. Ibiki grinned at the Gennin before upping his Killing Intent again causing all of the Gennin to gulp as he said "Well now, it seems like we have quite a few smart ones in here this time… or really good cheaters!"

Most of the Gennin couldn't help but flinch at that while Naruto merely smirked. Sure the Killing Intent was making him nervous, but he was starting to like this guy. After all, pranking and mental warfare went practically hand in hand if you looked at them the right way.

Ibiki caught the blonde's smirk and rose an eyebrow before dismissing it and said "Now then, it's time for the tenth question, but before we begin, there's a few extra rules you need to be aware of. First off, you must chose whether or not to take the tenth question."

There was muttering from the Gennin before Temari asked "Why do we have to do that?"

Ibiki chuckled and all of the Gennin once again felt that shiver going down their spines as Ibiki said "Because of the next rule. Anyone who chooses to take the tenth question, and gets it wrong, will lose all their points and be forever banned from taking the Chunnin Exams again!"

The room erupted into chaos as the Gennin began shouting about the unfairness of that statement.

"What do you mean we'll be banned from taking the Exams? There are people who have taken them plenty of times, I know it!" Kiba shouted.

Ibiki chuckled again and said "Well then I guess you just got unlucky when you chose to take the exams this time because I wasn't the proctor then."

Naruto frowned before he noticed Kabuto and a few others were actually sitting calmly at their desk while the others were looking like they were two seconds from having a heart attack. His eyes widened before he grinned as he realized what the man from the I&T department was doing.

'It's just another mind game he's playing. Well if you want to play, then let's play.'

A banging sound interrupted all the shouting going on and everyone's attention was suddenly on Naruto who was standing with his palm flat on the desk while he grinned at Ibiki who had once again raised an eyebrow at the blond.

'He's planning something.' Ibiki thought briefly wondering what the prankster king of the Leaf would do.

"Sorry Mister Ibiki, but you don't scare me, and neither does your tenth question and it's rules. Now stop wasting our time and bring it on! Because I am not backing down and anyone in this room who is even thinking about stepping down right now should think of stepping out of the ninja program for good. Every day we step out of village walls on a mission we could wind up facing something that could be the death of us, but does that stop us? Hell no! So give us the question already!"

Ibiki looked at all the Gennin and noticed the looks of determination on their faces and thought 'With one small speech he turned them all to his side. Kid will go far. Still 78 teams left, Anko's never going to let me hear the end of this.'

Grinning he said "Well then, I guess we'll just get to it then. For those of you who stayed for the tenth question….congratulations, you all passed."


	12. The Second Exam Part One

12. The Second Exam Part One

Author's notes: I said it before and I'll say it again, viruses are a real PIA. Also, I must apologize on getting my numbers wrong folks. In the manga, it was 78 Gennin who passed not teams, so please forgive me for that.

"Well then, I guess we'll just get to it then. For those of you who stayed for the tenth question….congratulations, you all passed."

Silence reigned in the classroom for nearly a full minute as Naruto, those who had taken the exam before, and the Proctor enjoyed the shocked looks on the testes' faces. Then,

"WHAT?"

Ibiki chuckled and said "You all passed."

He then began untying his bandana and almost all of the Gennin flinched back at all of the scars, burns, and screw holes on his forehead.

'Holy, he's been tortured to the extreme. And by the looks of things, whoever did it didn't get what they wanted.' Naruto thought as he willed himself not to look away briefly glancing at Ibiki's gloved hands before looking back up to Ibiki's face.

"The brat was right. Every day, we put our lives on the line when we step out of those gates. When you're on a mission, can you just give up if it gets too hard? No! You have to keep going forward no matter what!"

"So what was the tenth question?" a Waterfall ninja asked from the back.

"That was the tenth question." Naruto said as he leaned back in his chair and smirked at Ibiki as he continued. "Old Scarface here wanted to see if we had the guts to keep going or if we'd go back home crying to mommy and daddy."

Ibiki frowned before he remembered that Naruto's profile mentioned that he gave nicknames to those he respected. Heck, the kid was said to actually call the Hokage Old Man when he wasn't in the company of others for crying out loud. Smirking at the blond, he said "The brat's right again. We had to see if you would be willing to keep going when the mission started to get tough or if you would run with your tails between your legs."

"Then what was the point of the first nine questions?" Temari asked.

Ibiki glanced over at Naruto with a raised eyebrow that basically asked him if he was going to answer this one as well and Naruto rose an eyebrow as if to say 'you're the proctor.'

Chuckling to himself, Ibiki said "It was to test your information gathering skills. In the shinobi world, information, or the lack of, is everything. It can save lives and prevent wars. But enough about that. The second exam is about to-"

He was unable to get any further because just then a black blur broke through the window and shot in front of him before unfurling as two kunai shot from the object and sunk into the ceiling revealing a banner tied to them that read: Second Proctor of the Chunnin Exams: Anko Mitarashi.

Standing in front of the banner was a purple haired woman wearing a fish net shirt under a tan trench coat and mini skirt.

Anko gave a smile that made Ibiki's look like some academy student giving you the puppy eyes and said "No time to celebrate! The second exam begins now!"

Ibiki sighed as he walked around the banner pushing it away with his hand and said "You're early again Anko. Can't you sense the mood in the room?"

Anko blushed before she looked around the room at the Gennin who were staring at the oddly dressed woman trying to figure her out.

Anko then frowned as she counted the number of Gennin before she turned to Ibiki and said "26 teams? You passed 26 teams? Ibiki, you're getting soft!"

Ibiki shrugged and said "What can I say? We have better participants this year than usual."

Anko rose an eyebrow as she turned back to study the Gennin again and said "Reeeally? Well anyway, my test well cut down these guys' numbers by at least half. Everyone follow me!"

And with that, the woman jumped back out the window she came in and the Gennin all looked at each other for a moment before shrugging and following.

Scene Change: Forest Of Death

The 26 teams were currently standing in front of Anko who was in turn standing in front of a forest with extremely large trees and a fence with a gate whose chain had three padlocks on it. Over the gate was a large sign that said NO TRESPASSING. Nearby was a hut with a curtain that had a few Chunnin just sitting around.

A large roar was heard from the forest and some of the Gennin gulped causing Anko to smirk at them as she said "This is the arena for the second exam: Training Ground 44. Also known as … the Forest of Death!"

"It looks like a pretty creepy place." Sakura said from behind Naruto who was looking into the forest with narrowed eyes.

Anko chuckled and said "You're about to find out first hand why they call this the "Forest of Death"!"

Naruto rose an eyebrow and said "I don't know about the whole "Forest of Death" part, but if that roar just now was anything to go by, then that place might just be a good area to train my partners for evolution. Although they might find it a bit boring."

Anko grinned at Naruto before he suddenly replaced himself with the no trespassing sign as it was pierced with a kunai that the proctor had thrown at speeds most of the Gennin had trouble following. The kunai continued its path cutting a single hair of a Grass kunoichi before landing on the ground.

The proctor appeared next to the sign as it fell to the ground expecting Naruto to still be there and rose an eyebrow as she heard "Gee lady, kunai happy much?"

Every one looked over to where the sign had been previously to see Naruto crouched over the gate staying on the fence through use of the tree climbing exercise with a raised eyebrow of his own.

Anko smirked and said "You know kid, that kunai would have only scratched your cheek a little. Barely would have drew any blood."

Naruto smirked as well and said "Yeah well, forgive me if I prefer to keep all my fluids in my body."

Anko chuckled before she suddenly tensed and had a kunai at the throat at the Grass kunoichi who had approached her with her other kunai in her long tongue.

"Your kunai proctor."

Anko smiled as she took the kunai from the kunoichi and pocketed both before she said "Thanks, but don't just stand behind me radiating bloodlust like that unless you're in a hurry to die."

The kunoichi lowered her head as her freakishly long tongue retracted and said "I'll try to keep it under control. But I was revved up from losing a strand of my precious hair."

"Sorry about that." Anko said as the kunoichi began walking away. Turning back to Naruto who hadn't moved an inch she rose an eyebrow and said "You just going to stay up there all day brat?"

Naruto shrugged stopping the chakra flow from his feet and pushed off from the fence towards the group before flipping and landing in a crouch next to the proctor.

Anko quickly went into business mode and reached into her trench coat as she said "Before we begin the second exam, there's something I have to hand out."

Pulling out her hand, everyone noticed that she was holding papers and Naruto noticed that they were consent forms.

"They're consent forms. Everybody has to sign one."

Naruto rose an eyebrow and said "Why?"

Anko smiled and said "We want all the details covered before the first deaths occur. Sign before you go in, so we can't be held liable. You wouldn't want me to get in trouble would you?"

She laughed at the end like she was joking although most of them got the impression that she wasn't, at least not about the death part.

"First, I'll explain what the second exam entails. Then you can sign the forms. With the other two members of your cell, bring the forms to the hut behind you and submit them. Got that?"

Anko handed the consent forms to Naruto and he took one before handing them to the next Gennin as Anko continued "Now, about the exam. To put it simply, It's a no-holds-barred survival test."

'Survival eh?' Shikamaru thought as he passed the forms along. 'Another pain-in-the-neck exam! Bleah!'

Anko pulled out a scroll and let it unfurl revealing a map as she continued speaking.

"Let's start with the topography of this training ground. I'll explain the rest later. Training ground 44 is bordered by a circular perimeter interrupted at regular intervals by forty-four locked gates. There are forests and a river and in the center is a tower about ten kilometers from those gates."

"Within the confines of this carefully delineated area, you're going to undergo a survival test. During the course of that test, you may use any ninja arts or weapons you have at your disposal. It's kind of a fight-to-the-death version of "capture the flag" or, in this case, "capture the scroll."

"Scroll?" A Waterfall nin asked as Anko rolled up the map scroll.

"Exactly!" Anko said before pulling out two other scrolls. One had Earth written on it while the other had Heaven.

"There's a "scroll of heaven" and a "scroll of earth." And your objective is to acquire both scrolls. There are seventy-eight of you here. That's twenty-six three-member teams. Thirteen teams will start out with a heaven scroll and the other thirteen will start out with a heaven scroll. But you'll need both scrolls to pass. And then bring them both to the tower at the center."

"In other words, at least half of us, the thirteen teams whose scrolls are stolen, will fail." Sakura said.

"You bet!" Anko said. "And there's a time limit! You have 120 hours in which to complete this exam - Exactly five days!"

"Five days?" Ino asked.

"What are we supposed to do for food?" Chouji asked with wide eyes.

Anko shrugged and said "That's your problem. The forests are full of nature's bounty. Of course, they're also full of man-eating animals, deadly insects, and poisonous plants."

Chouji's head dropped as he sighed while Anko continued speaking.

"There's no way as many as thirteen teams will pass this. As time shortens, the trials will come harder and faster. With less recovery time for any mistakes, accidents, or injuries, you'll be surrounded by enemies at all times, so you'll have to sleep with one eye open."

'Or leave a few shadow clones around.' Naruto thought with a smirk.

"So, in addition to those who die in attempts to defend or capture a scroll, some of you are bound to succumb to exhaustion, exposure, starvation, and dehydration."

"Now let's talk about the rules, and what offenses you can be disqualified for! Obviously the teams that fail to reach the tower in time as a three member cell carrying both a heaven and an earth scroll are out. So is any team that loses a member whether to death or to severe injury. And under no circumstances, can you leave the forest before the time is up. No recess, no timeouts. Also, you're forbidden to look at the contents of the scrolls until you're inside the tower!"

Naruto's eyebrow rose and he said "Just out of curiosity, what happens if we sneak a peek?"

Anko smirked and said "That's for those who look to know!"

Naruto chuckled and thought 'She has got to be with the I&T people.'

Anko rose an eyebrow but shrugged and pressed on.

"If any of you make it to the Chunnin level, there will be times when you'll be entrusted with top-secret documents, so consider this a test of your trustworthiness. That's all the explanation you get. We'll trade one scroll for every three forms. When you've got yours choose the gate you want to start from. Everyone will begin at the same time. One final piece of advice, stay alive!"

Thirty minutes later, Team 7 was waiting at gate 12 for the Chunnin stationed there to unlock the last padlock for them.

As they waited, Naruto turned to his two teammates and said "Hey guys, once we're far enough in there. I think me and my partners should go solo for recon purposes. I'll leave a shadow clone with you guys that can create another one that will dispel to tell me if you need me to come back. Sound good?"

Sakura nodded knowing that Naruto had a vast arsenal of forms he could take that would allow him to move through the forest undetected while Sasuke frowned before reluctantly nodding as well.

'I'll allow this for now Dead Last. But soon I will have a fully mature Sharingan and then all your techniques will be mine and you will finally be shown your place.' (Yeah, keep dreaming Sasuke.)

The Chunnin at the gate slid the key into the padlock and took it off sliding the chain out and looked down at his watch while putting his hand on the gate. Then at exactly three-thirty, Anko's voice came over the nearby PA system.

"Part two of the Chunnin exam begins, NOW!"

The Chunnin threw open the gate and Team 7 dashed in taking to the trees a hundred steps into the forest.

After thirty minutes of tree hopping Naruto signaled to his teammates to head down to a small clearing. When the three shinobi landed, Sakura turned to Naruto and said "What is it Naruto?"

Naruto held his hand in front of him and discretely made the sign for enemy before he also made the sign for shadow clone stating that he would handle it and then send a shadow clone back to them.

"Sorry guys, but I'm afraid I got to go take a whiz." Naruto said.

Sakura gained a tick mark and marched over before bonking Naruto on the head before shouting out "Naruto you idiot! Don't go saying that in front of ladies."

"Ow, Sakura." Naruto whined before turning around and walking away from his teammates. As he did, he felt the enemy presence follow.

Once he was far enough away, he began to do his business. Just as he was finishing, he felt Warturtle's Pokeball vibrate in warning and he said "You know, sneaking up on a guy when he's doing his business is kind of un cool."

The not so hidden rain nin cursed before trying to attack the blond with a kunai before a flash of red light briefly lit up the forest and the rain nin found himself wrapped in vines with Ivysaur glaring at him while Warturtle and Charmeleon were looking at their trainer for instructions. Naruto rose up a hand and the two nodded slightly relaxing while the blond walked over to the struggling rain nin.

Looking the nin in the eyes he said "Where are your teammates?"

The rain nin glared at him and said "I'm not telling you any thing kid."

Naruto's eyes narrowed before he shrugged and said "Charmeleon, please cut off one of our friend's arms."

Charmeleon nodded and began walking forward as his tail began glowing causing the Rain nin's eyes to bug out and he said "Alright, alright, I came alone!"

"Do you have your team's scroll on you?" Naruto asked.

"No, but I was able to get some other sap's scroll though. It's in by kunai pouch."

"So soon? Impressive." Naruto said with a raised eyebrow before making a gesture to Ivysaur who shot a seed at the Rain nin who quickly slumped over unconscious while Charmeleon let his Iron Tail attack drop.

Naruto quickly searched the other nin and found what he was looking for in the pouch before making a shadow clone with enough chakra to last for five days and to make about twenty shadow clones itself. Handing it the scroll, he said "Take this back to Sakura and Sasuke. Create a clone if you have any troubles. All goes well, we'll rendezvous at the tower in five days."

The clone saluted before taking off back toward the original's teammates. Turning back to his partners, Naruto grinned and said "So you guys ready to go hunting?"

Ivysaur nodded as Chameleon's more primal side came out and he grinned while Warturtle punched his left hand with his right fist and said something along the lines of finally getting some action.

Naruto chuckled and said "Yeah, sorry about that pal. But I'm afraid the Old Man wouldn't have appreciated you guys sending any of his ninja into the hospital. But we can go all out in here. How about this, I'm going to send out a few clone teams, but any teams we come across ourselves are yours."

The three Pokemon nodded and Naruto crossed his fingers causing smoke to surround the four. When it cleared, there was ten clones surrounding them. Naruto studied the clones considering how he was going to do this before he began pointing at them giving them orders.

"All right guys, here's how we'll play it. Use Psychic types to find a team. Once you do, I want you two to go as Sudowoodo. You'll go as a Lucario. You should probably go with Luxray. Hm, let's see, we could probably use a Kecleon so that will be your one. You three will go with Ariados. Sceptile will be perfect in this environment as well so that well be yours. Also, I'm curious about what's in those scrolls, so you go as a Murkrow or Noctowl and see if you can use a Hypnosis on a team and get them to open their scrolls. Once you find out, go ahead and dispel. Everyone else, when you have your scrolls, head to the top of the tower where we'll rendezvous. Everyone understand?"

All of the clones nodded before they and the original turned into various Psychic types and began locking onto the presences in the forest. Once each group had the position of the team that they would go after, they switched forms into more mobile Flying types and took off leaving the original and his partners to go after their own targets.

Turning to them, Naruto transformed into a four footed dark type that was three foot three with yellow rings on its black body. Naruto then jerked his head in the direction of their target before he took off running through the forest and his partners quickly followed, with Warturtle and Charmeleon on all fours to keep up.

(Clone 1 And Clone 2)

Clone one and his brother were standing stock still using Sudowoodo's inherent mimicking skills to look like two trees that had just started their lives in the great forest while a team of Grass nin walked right by them not paying either of them any attention as they looked around wary of enemy teams.

As the trio passed them in a triangle formation, both clones opened their eyes and shifted back into the Pokemon's natural form before they began moving after them. As soon as they were close enough, the two clones rose an arm and brought it down on the two rear Gennin's heads who instantly slumped unconscious. The two clones caught the bodies before they made a sound and laid them on the ground before the first clone silently walked over to the last Gennin and quickly knocked him out as well.

As the Gennin fell the two clones dropped their transformations and began to search the Gennin. Once they found the team's scroll, they transformed into Pidgeys and took off over the treetops towards the tower.

(Clone Three)

Clone Three was currently standing on the top of a tree on one foot with the other leg curled. His eyes were closed with a blue aura surrounding him. Sensing all of the auras in the forest around him, he locked onto the Sand team that was less that a hundred yards away. Turning towards them he jumped landing on the next treetop and began making his way towards them.

Once he was over the team, he began making his way down. As he landed on the last branch over them, the team noticed him and they all tensed.

"What the hell is that thing?" The kunoichi on the team asked.

The clone frowned and said "You know, that wasn't very lady like of you. But to answer your question, this form I have taken is called a Lucario. Now will you please surrender your scroll, or will I have to use force?"

The three Gennin frowned and one of them, the clone assumed was the leader said "You are after our scroll. That means that we can assume that you must have one as well or at least know where one is as well."

The clone smirked and said "Maybe I do, maybe I don't. But how do you know if I am even the real deal or just a clone the creator made to thin the ranks?"

Confusion appeared on the Gennin's faces before the clone closed his eyes and a blue shell appeared around his body and he disappeared. The Gennin's eyes widened before the clone reappeared with his right foot in the leader's stomach sending him flying into a tree expelling the air out of his lungs and leaving the Gennin dazed.

The other two Gennin had meanwhile leapt back and were both running through hand signs before flinging them at the transformed clone and simultaneously shouted out "Wind Style: Great Gale Jutsu!" The two C-rank jutsu rushed towards the clone in a pincer movement and both Gennin had smirks on their faces thinking that their opponent was about to get a taste of his own medicine. They were quickly wiped off as the clone leapt high over the technique with the help of his aura before back flipping as he brought his hands to his right side with a blue ball forming in between them.

As soon as the clone landed, he shoved his hands toward the Kunoichi and shouted "Aura Sphere!" The ball shot out towards the girl faster than either of the two could comprehend and slammed into her sending her crashing into another tree before slumping over unconscious.

Turning to the other Gennin who was desperately sealing for another technique, the clone quickly disappeared before slamming its aura encased hand into the Gennin's chest and calmly said "Force Palm." The Gennin had just enough time to widen his eyes before he too was launched into another tree. He tried to get up, but to his surprise, found that his entire body wouldn't obey his commands.

"Can't move?" The clone asked. Seeing the Gennin's terrified look, the clone said "Force Palm has a 30% chance of paralyzing the target. Don't worry. It'll wear off in a little bit."

Turning to the leader who was shakily getting up while holding his chest, the clone said "It is pointless for us to continue. Please surrender your scroll. It would not be in your best interest for all three of you to be incapacitated in an environment such as this."

The leader looked to his two teammates before softly cursing to himself before pulling out a sealing scroll earning a raised eyebrow from the clone when the Gennin unsealed the team's Heaven scroll and tossed it to the clone.

The clone caught the scroll and said "Your rationality is appreciated." Taking an aura amplified jump upwards before back flipping and landed on an overhead branch before turning and took off into the forest for a short distance before dropping his transformation. Looking back, he said "It is unfortunate you had to face me during this exam. But we can't have too much competition at the tower now can we?"

The clone then looked forward and pocketed the scroll before transforming into a Pidgey and took off over the treetops hoping to meet up with his brothers and compare stories with how things went with them.

(Clone Four)

Clone four was currently hidden in the dark shade of the crook of a low overhanging branch of one of the forest's large trees as a Leaf team walked towards him. He was transformed as a Luxray, a four foot seven black and blue lion dog hybrid that had a dull yellow mace like tail. The clone knew that its creator had chosen Luxray for this mission as its transformation not only for its outer colors but also for its ability to see through objects. It made it a lot easier to track down the team and to know which Gennin carried the scroll.

As the team walked to about a foot from it, the clone resisted the urge to allow the Luxray's instincts to take over and growl and prepared to pounce on them. As soon as they were right under it, the clone leapt down from the branch instantly flattening the first Gennin under its weight pinning it down.

The clone had to give the other two Gennin this, they had quick reflexes. They had both leapt back and had kunai in their hands by the time they landed. The clone narrowed its eyes as it studied its opponents while its hostage squirmed under its paws.

"What the hell is that thing?" The kunoichi asked as she stared at it with wide eyes.

"I have no idea." Her teammate said.

The clone chuckled earning wide eyes from all three Gennin and said "Oh, that's simple, I'm a Luxray. Now here's what's going to happen. You are going to hand me your scroll little girl, and I will not electrocute your teammate with the electricity I can generate in my body."

The three Gennin's eyes widened at the fact that the creature had just spoke before sparks began to appear along its coat showing that it was serious snapping them out of their surprise.

"H-Here, just don't hurt our friend." The kunoichi said as she reached into her kunai pouch and tossed the scroll onto the ground in front of the strange talking creature.

The clone smirked and hopped off of his hostage earning an "oof!" before walking over saying "Pleasure doing business with you."

Picking the scroll up in his mouth, the clone began trotting off into the forest towards the tower before taking off at a full off run until he was completely out of sight of the team leaving them staring at each other wondering what the hell just happened.

The clone meanwhile had stopped running and dropped the scroll out of his mouth before dropping the transformation.

"Glad they bought the bluff." He said to himself as he bent down and pocketed the scroll. In truth, the original and the clones could create sparks but couldn't quite get electrical attacks down yet. The clone then shrugged before transforming into a Pidgey and continued on towards the tower.

(Clone 5)

Clone 5 was mentally laughing its ass off as it followed a team from the hidden Waterfall village. As a Kecleon, he could change the color of his skin to almost completely blend in with his surroundings leaving only the patterns on its belly the same. And yet these fools not once have checked right behind them!

'Oh well,' Mused the three foot thee, color swap type. 'Time to get to work.'

The transformed cloned silently unrolled its considerably long tail before quickly spinning tripping the unsuspecting team sending them crashing to the ground.

"Ow! What the hell?" seemed to be the general consensus from the Gennin team as the clone finally couldn't take it any more and dropped it's camouflage as it rolled around the forest floor laughing.

The three Gennin were instantly on their feet with kunai in their hands before they noticed the normal type still rolling around laughing and they each gained WTF looks.

"Uh, what is that?" The Gennin on the left asked while the other two merely shrugged.

The clone finally was able to get control of itself as it picked itself up. Looking back at the three it nearly burst back into laughing fits. Instead, it seemed to put on a serious face and said "Thief" before seeming to just vanish out of nowhere.

The three Gennin were instantly on guard and looked around for a few minutes trying to find the clone before shrugging and went on their way.

In some nearby bushes, the clone was holding an Earth scroll in his hands and snickered to itself before saying "Heh, Heh, suckers!"

It then dropped its transformation before pocketing the scroll before transforming into a Pidgey and took flight towards the tower.

(Clones 6, 7, & 8)

Clone 8 and his two brothers were currently moving through the undergrowth as a team of Ariados' parallel with a hidden Leaf team to their right that was currently tree hopping. The plan was to wait for the Leaf team to take a break and take em in an ambush using their web spinning abilities. With any luck, there wouldn't be any fighting involved.

That hope was instantly squashed when they saw kunai come whistling towards the three transformed clones causing them to jump apart and land horizontally against three different tree trunks. The three Bug Poison hybrids looked at the leaf team that were still above them but now smirking at them.

"Well now. I thought we could get a scroll and just head to the tower on the first day, but it looks like our dinner came instead." the Gennin on the right said.

The kunoichi on the team shuddered and said "You want to eat one of those things? How do you know they're not poisonous?"

The three clones traded glances with each other causing the leader of the team to narrow his eyes in suspicion, but before he could say anything in warning to his teammates, Clone 8 shouted out "Now!"

All three Gennin's eyes widened at the fact that one of the bugs spoke before each one cried out "String Shot!"

Before the Gennin could react, thread shot out each clone's mouth like silly string and wrapped around them pinning their arms to their sides. The clones each gave a tug of their heads causing the Gennin to lose their balance and the three fell from the branch they had been standing on. As the Gennin were groaning in pain from their landing, the clones dropped their transformations earning wide eyes from their counterparts.

"You guys are clones?" The leader asked looking from one of them to the other in surprise.

Clone 6 smirked and said "Yup. Now are you going to tell us which one of you guys has the scroll or are we just going to have to strip search all three of you guys."

The kunoichi blushed and shouted "You wouldn't dare you Dead Last! "

The clones all rose an eye brow before trading glances and Clone 7 said "Looks like Boss is well known even with the Gennin."

"Yeah." Clone 8 said before walking over to the leader and crouching down and said "So what will it be?"

Two minutes later three Pidgeys were flying towards the tower with the Leaf team one scroll short and their leader trying to break out his two teammates.

(Clone 9)

Clone 9 was currently transformed and in his element as he traveled over the highest branches of the forest. Currently a five foot seven Sceptile, this grass type was known as the Forest Pokemon and with good reason. Its agility allowed it to leap through jungles with relative ease and the sharp leaves on its arms could really put the hurt on anyone who got in its way. Not to mention the fact that their tails weren't just for show didn't hurt either.

The clone angled his head and looked down towards the Rain team he was trailing and smirked knowing that he would be right on top of them in a matter of seconds and that they had absolutely no idea what was about to happen to them.

'Death from above indeed.' the clone mused to itself before it put on one last burst of speed as it put chakra into the blades on its arms and pushed off the next branch down towards the team cloths lining the two Gennin who were in the rear of the triangle formation.

The leader only saw a green blur shoot down from behind him and didn't even notice his now headless comrades' bodies fall to the forest floor before the blur landed on a lower tree branch and turned around giving the Gennin a quick glimpse of _something_ before it shot right back at him and then pivoted in midair and slammed its tail into him sending him crashing into the nearby tree.

The Gennin slammed into the tree putting a dent in the bark, then fell down before landing hard on a branch. The Gennin groaned in pain as it felt like his entire left side had caved in. A pretty fair estimate considering the fact that the clone's tail strike had broken at least four ribs on the left side.

But before the Gennin could come to his senses and figure out just what the hell was going on, the clone landed on the branch and walked over to the Gennin who lifted his head to look up at one of the monsters that the proctor had obviously been talking about at the start of the exam. Clone 9 once again poured chakra into one of his blades making it glow before leaning forward and swung, quickly separating the Gennin's head from its body.

Sighing, the clone quickly searched the body and found the needed scroll. As he dropped his transformation, he looked at the body and said "I am sorry for this. But in this world, it is kill or be killed."

The clone then pocketed the scroll before transforming into a Pidgey and taking off to the tower to rejoin his brother clones to await their creator.

(Clone 10)

If Clone 10 could, he would have been grinning evilly as he looked down at the unsuspecting Leaf team that was going to be the guinea pigs to satisfy his creator's curiosity. He had to give his creator this, he knew exactly what Pokemon to use for this.

Currently a Murkrow, this one foot eight Dark Flying hybrid type was said to be feared and loathed by many since it was believed to bring misfortune all those who saw it at night. And while it might not be night time right now, the three Leaf Gennin that were currently in its sights were definitely in for some bad luck.

Mentally cackling one last time at what he was about to do as the team walked past him, he turned around and said "Yo! Leafies!"

The three Gennin spun around with kunai in hand looking for an enemy.

"Up here you morons!" The clone said mentally chuckling as the three Gennin's eyes widened at the sight of a talking bird.

"What the hell?" The kunoichi said before the clone's eyes glowed a brighter red putting all three on edge.

The clone somehow smirked as he said "Hypnosis." Causing rings of red light to shoot from his eyes and head towards the Gennin expanding on the way to encompass all three. The three Gennin stiffened before vacant looks enter their eyes as all three took the traditional toy soldier pose letting the kunai fall from their hands.

(Alright, for all you diehards out there, yes Murkrow doesn't know Hypnosis, but I did agree to put it in, also, I saw a picture on DA where something similar happened so bear with me on this.)

The clone somehow smirked before he got semi-serious and said "All right my minions, you three are going to help me find out what's in those scrolls. So whoever has it, please take it out and open it."

Surprisingly enough, it was the kunoichi who reacted to the command, reaching into the first aid pouch that was next to her kunai pouch and pulling out a small sealing scroll and unsealing the Heaven scroll from it before unrolling said scroll.

Whatever the clone was expecting, it sure wasn't what happened next. A pulse shot out of the scroll and all three Gennin dropped to the forest floor unconscious before a Leaf Chunnin that had been at the booth handing out scrolls appeared in a poof of smoke.

The Chunnin looked down at the three and shook his head and said "Looks like they allowed their curiosity to get the better of them."

"Not really, just mine." The clone said causing the Chunnin to spin around in surprise. The clone dropped its transformation before he said "Ja, ne." and dispelled himself.

The Chunnin stared for a moment before shaking his head and said to himself "Tricking others to satisfy his own curiosity. Anko would love him."

Meanwhile, all of the other clones and the original received the clone's memory and each mentally made a note not to open their scrolls until they were in the tower.

(With Naruto and His Partners)

Naruto and his partners had made good time on tracking down their team and had taken the three Sand nin composing it down in relative ease.

Flashback

A sand team consisting of a puppeteer and one long and mid range wind users were walking through the forest when the long range wind user's left foot was suddenly wrapped in vines. Before he could shout out in surprise, the Gennin was dragged into the underbrush drawing the attention of his two teammates. However, before they could go help him, a stream of fire shot out from the right of the puppet user causing the two to separate.

As the mid range user landed, a blue blur shot out of the bushes and crashed into his stomach revealing Warturtle as the Gennin folded over before losing consciousness from the pain of being Skull Bashed by an intermediate level Pokemon.

Meanwhile, the puppet user had his own problems with Charmeleon who had come out of hiding and had quickly burned the puppet with a well timed Flamethrower and was now trying to hit the highly elusive Gennin with his Iron Tail and newly learned Shadow Claw attacks.

But just when he was about to let loose a Fire Blast to finally hit the little weasel, a seed shot out of a nearby bush and hit the Gennin before vines shot out of the seed and wrapped around the Gennin much to his surprise before they glowed red and drained his energy.

Meanwhile as this was going on, Charmeleon was glaring at Ivysaur who had walked out of the bushes with their transformed Trainer dragging his target behind him with a vine.

"That was my target Ivysaur." Charmeleon growled out.

Ivysaur shrugged and said "It looked like you could have used some help."

"Come on guys, no fighting." Wartutle said as he hopped off his own target and walked over.

Charmeleon took a deep breath and nodded to his water type friend before turning back to his other friend and said "Warturtle's right, I'm sorry. I allowed the rush of battle to get to my head. I will do my best not to let it happen again."

Ivysaur nodded and looked over to their trainer who by that time had already dropped his transformation and was searching the three unconscious Gennin.

Finding the scroll, he looked to his partners with a smile and said "Great job guys, ready to go after another team?"

The three Pokemon nodded before Naruto suddenly stiffened and looked towards the North.

"What is it?" Charmeleon asked, already slipping into his more gentle nature now that the battle was over.

"The shadow clone that I left with Sakura and Sasuke just dispelled from some kind of wind attack. And a big one at that."

Naruto frowned as he thought 'I could transform into a Psychic type and teleport there since my clone has been there before and is technically me, but I have no idea what is going on over there right now. No, my best bet is to go with a Flying type and get there as fast as possible that way.'

Turning back to his partners, he said "Sorry guys, looks like I'm going to have to call this hunt off a little early."

His partners nodded and Naruto recalled them before making the familiar handsign and transformed. When the smoke cleared, it revealed a three foot eleven tall bird with dark brown and grey feather and a red blade of sorts on its forehead.

The Staraptor looked towards where its clone had dispelled and took flight heading through the trees hoping it would reach its team in time.


	13. The Second Exam Part Two

13. The Second Exam Part Two

Story Begin: Forest Of Death

Sasuke and Sakura were currently in a bad situation. Why might you ask? Because Sasuke had just gotten his emo butt kicked by some snake summoning Grass nin and Sakura was being her usual useless self shaking like a leaf while she watched the fight.

Said nin chuckled from her position on a tree branch opposite of Sasuke and said "Ku Ku Ku, well done, Sasuke-kun, just as I expected of one from the Uchiha. I have decided. You have passed my test and so earned a gift from me I believe. But first, you should know the true identity of the one you have fought."

The kunoichi raised a hand up to her face before grabbing it and ripped it off revealing the face of a pale skinned man underneath drawing wide eyes from both Gennin.

The man smirked at the looks on their faces and said "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Orochimaru. Now then, lets get started shall we?"

And before either Gennin could react, Orochimaru's neck extended towards Sasuke and the man bit him on the neck. As he let go and retracted his neck, Sasuke began screaming in pain as he clutched at his neck before the rest of his body went limp from the pain like a puppet with its strings cut.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura yelled before turning to the man and shouted "What did you do to him?"

Orochimaru gave his weird laugh again and said "I merely gave him a way to obtain the power to reach his goals. And he shall come to me eventually to obtain that power. Now why don't you go to sleep."

Right after he finished speaking, Sakura felt a Killing Intent far worse than she ever felt before and was instantly knocked out.

As the pinkette slumped over unconscious, the man chuckled to himself and said "Now I just have to wait for the Kyubi child to come back for his teammates and test him to see if he is worthy like Sasuke-kun was. I do hope he is. To have both the power of the Sharingan and the Kyubi, mm, delicious." Right after he finished speaking, Orochimaru's long tongue ran over his lips.

In a tree branch overhead, a Staraptor that had only been able to reach the battle field in time to see his teammate get the ultimate hickey shuddered and thought 'Ugh, no thank you Mr. Pedophile. Still, if this guy is who he says he is, then this could be bad. I was thinking about just letting the guys loose on whoever's ass took out my clone with that wind jutsu, but if even half of what I heard about this guy is true, he could wind up killing them. Which means it's up to me to get those two out of there while not getting bit by that freak, great. What to do, what to do? Hm, that might work. It'll definitely attract a lot of attention to this area as well considering how big of an explosion it'll be that's for sure.'

Meanwhile, Orochimaru was patiently waiting for his next bit of entertainment, when two kunai suddenly shot down towards Sakura and Sasuke before he heard "Shadow Kunai Jutsu!"

Orochimaru's eyes widened thinking that his next vessel was being attacked but before he could do anything, the two kunai had multiplied before being covered in smoke and metallic figures with two arms but no legs appeared continuing towards the two Gennin before arranging themselves into domes around the two.

Orochimaru blinked at the two Metang domes before looking up and saw two blondes standing on a branch looking down at him with one having his arms crossed frowning and the other currently grinning like a maniac.

Orochimaru chuckled and said "Ku, Ku, Ku. My Naruto-kun, for me not to detect you like that, your stealth must be the best of your village, on par with the senile old monkey even."

The blond that was frowning narrowed his eyes and said "Flattery will get you no where Snake Face."

Orochimaru's face took a more neutral look to it and he said "Not flattery, merely stating an opinion. Tell me Naruto-kun, why do you stay in this village when it does not respect your power or even your right to live as a human?"

Naruto rose an eyebrow and said "Well for one thing I don't usually have to worry about pedophiles like you trying to give me hickeys while I'm here."

Orochimaru smiled a cruel smile and said "Ah, so you saw that did you? Yes, Sasuke-kun seeks power, and I plan to give it to him. I can give you power as well, but first I'm afraid I'll have to test you to see if you are worthy. I must admit I am curious about your ability to transform into those unusual creatures and these supposed partners of yours."

Naruto smirked and said "Really, well why don't you test my clone then? Transform!"

The clone whose grin had constantly been getting bigger pushed off of the branch towards the snake summoner as both blondes made a hand sign. Orochimaru was unable to see what the original had transformed into since when the clone came out of the cloud, it was now a six foot eleven, black and white, one thousand and fourteen point one pound Snorlax that was two seconds from belly flopping him. Orochimaru's eyes widened before the clone flattened him and then exploded sending a massive shockwave out as the half ton bomb let out its payload.

As the trees finished swaying from the explosion, Naruto opened his eyes and looked around at the destruction he caused. Thankfully both he and the Metang domes were alright although he had some scorching on his sides. The surrounding trees however were another story. Most of them had huge burn marks from near the roots to past where he was with half the trees burnt away at the level of the blast and Naruto was sure that if there had been anything other than Chakra in that clone to add to the explosion than most of the trees would be gone, plain and simple.

Naruto somehow gave a low whistle with his rock type body and said "Damn, forget having my clones learning Explosion. I think I'll just stick with Snorlax bombs from now on. Now where is that Pedophile? There's no way that got him."

"Ku, Ku, Ku. Ah, such destructive power, if I had not replaced myself with a mud clone I would have been in trouble. I must have it!"

Naruto's head jerked up and he saw Orochimaru actually demerging himself out of a tree branch. As wrong as that sounded, there was no other way for him to describe it. Orochimaru then saw what Naruto had transformed into and a strange gleam appeared in his eyes as he said "And you can turn into some kind of snake as well it seems. This just keeps getting better and better."

Said snake was an Onix, which was just under thirty feet long and weighed about four hundred and sixty three pounds with a horn on top of its head. Oh yeah, did I mention that it was completely made out of rock?

Naruto scoffed and said "Glad you like it, but how are you going to mark me now Snake Face? In case you haven't noticed, unlike your soft flesh, I'm completely made out of rock right now. And right now I'm seriously thinking about shoving this horn of mine right up your ass."

Orocohimaru smirked and said "Ah, but Naruto-kun, first you'd have to catch me."

Orochimaru swore right then and there he saw Naruto somehow smirk before the Rock Snake Pokemon shot up at him at fifty miles per hour causing the man's eyes to widen before he frantically jumped off the tree branch he was on as Naruto went straight through the tree and fell down the other side before hitting the ground and began rapidly burrowing his way underground not even bothered by the tree's roots and was completely underground before the top half of the tree even hit the forest floor.

Orochimaru frowned and thought 'That could be a problem. Still as long as he is under ground and I am up here, he should not be able to tell where I am. And I doubt he can hold that transformation forever. He will eventually have to change back.'

He was brought out of his thoughts by a rumbling sound as Naruto shot out of the ground two trees away and wrapped his body around the tree climbing it until he was level with Orochimaru and glared at the snake using nin.

Orochimaru chuckled and said "So what now Naruto-kun? We going to play reverse Wack-A-Mole now?"

Naruto narrowed his eyes and thought 'He's right, the trees are no place for a Rock Ground hybrid like Onix and I can't tell where he is while underground. I need something that can freely move around up here but is fast enough that he can't touch me. Only problem is I can't use ExtremeSpeed yet. Now what's fast enough to use? Come on Naruto, think! Oh, duh!'

Orochimaru was beginning to get nervous with how still Naruto was wondering if it was another exploding clone when Naruto's chakra suddenly fluctuated before he was covered in smoke. Orochimaru smirked thinking this was his chance and his neck extended towards where he thought Naruto would most likely be in the center of the cloud only to find nothing there and wind up on the other side of the dispersing smoke cloud.

As Orochimaru retracted his neck he looked around in confusion and thought 'Was that a shadow clone that he used to distract me in order to get away?'

Glancing over at where the Metang domes were revealed both were still there so that meant the Kyubi container still must be as well. Orochimaru frowned as he searched the surrounding area before a two foot seven blur shot right across his face causing the man to jerk in surprise before he tried to follow the practically invisible blur as it barely avoided the trees around it. That was until the thing seemed to suddenly get the hang of moving so fast and came right at him causing Orochimaru's eyes to widen before it shot past the left side of his face leaving a long scratch in his skin.

Orochimaru's hand flew to his face as it began to bleed before a loud screeching sound filled the area causing Orochimaru to cover both his ears making him almost not notice the prick of something biting him in the side of the neck as the screeching stopped. Almost.

Orochimaru frowned as he reached over to the spot that he felt the prick and felt some kind of bug bite before he heard "Don't bother Snake Face. The Pokemon I turned into has a real nasty poison it uses against its prey that they eat as a swarm. Within thirty minutes, you'll be completely paralyzed."

Orochimaru frowned and thought 'Anbu well be here soon in order to investigate that explosion from earlier. If what he is saying is true, then I need to find Kabuto and have him extract the poison as quickly as possible.'

Out loud he said "Well now Naruto-kun, I suppose our little test must end a little prematurely, but don't worry, we'll finish it at another time."

He then merged into the wood before taking off to find his medic and chief spy.

As soon as Naruto was confident he was gone, he flew out of hiding from behind a tree revealing himself in the form of a two foot seven Bug Flying hybrid called Ninjask. Coming to land next to the Metang dome that was protecting Sakura, Naruto fluctuated his chakra dropping his transformation.

As the chakra cloud dispersed, Naruto shook his head and thought 'I'm glad he bought my bluff. Ninjask may have been one of the best Bug types back then but they sure as heck didn't use any kind of poison.'

Looking at the dome that protected one of his teammates, he said "Alright guys, listen up, I need all but one of you to find us somewhere where we can wait for these two to wake up without worrying too much about an ambush. The other I need to dispel telling the others at the tower about what happened and to keep an eye out."

The dome erupted in smoke before clearing showing the clones who all saluted before one of them dispelled and the others all made the necessary hand sign and transformed into various Pokemon that blended in with their surroundings and took off.

After they were gone, Naruto tree hopped over to Sasuke's dome and said "I need one of you guys to go to the Old Man and tell him what's happened. The rest of you find the Proctor and tell her that Orochimaru is here. If that mark I saw on her neck is the same one on Sasuke's neck like I think it is, then she will most likely know what to do about it."

The dome went up in smoke and the clones saluted him before one transformed into a Skarmory and took off back to the village while another transformed into a Gallade and began focusing on the different presences.

Locking on to the Proctor's, he said "I found her, she's in the forest about three klicks from our position heading this way. Uh-oh."

"What is it?" Naruto asked.

"That snake freak is closing in on her." The clone said opening his eyes. "The two will be on top of each other in about ten minutes. And although there's an Anbu team entering the forest I doubt it well be anywhere near them until after that guy's had plenty of time to 'play' with her." Seeing everyone looking at him funny he said "You all saw how he acted. I'm willing to bet all my chakra that the Proctor was a former experiment and that Orochimaru is going after her just to mess with her head before finishing her off."

Naruto frowned and said "Hm, point taken. Alright, new orders guys. Get to her as fast as possible and make sure she lives long enough to talk with the Old Man. I don't care if you have to burn down half this forest with that new link we found in the fire chain, just keep her safe. Orochimaru seems interested in her for some reason so feel free to screw his ass over any way possible that you can think of until help arrives."

The clones nodded before the Gallade clone made the necessary hand sign and transformed into a Staraptor and said "Follow me." The other clones quickly transformed as well before the small flock took off over the forest to hopefully keep the member of the Legendary Three from killing their test proctor.

Naruto suddenly received memories and a few observations from one of the clones at the tower and frowned as he thought 'So Team 8 and that team from the Sand village have already made it to the tower. But how the hell did that team get there in an hour and thirty seven minutes without getting a single scratch on any of them never mind the fact that Gaara kid seemed to not have a speck of dirt on him. Never mind, I can't worry about that right now.'

As if to agree with that last thought, one of Naruto's clones dispelled showing him a tree whose roots made a cave that would make a good shelter for the night. Naruto briefly considered the position of the tree before nodding to himself before making two clones, one of which quickly dispelled telling the others to head to the tree to form a perimeter around it.

The other clone picked Sasuke up in a fireman's lift before tree hopping over to Sakura and put her on his other shoulder before following his creator down to the forest floor where Naruto released his partners.

As the three looked around, Wartortle said "Man Naruto, you really blew this place to pieces didn't you?"

Naruto frowned as he and the clone began walking towards the other clones and said "Weren't you guys watching from your Pokeballs?"

"Well yeah, but that's nothing compared to actually being out here and seeing the damage for ourselves." Wartortle said earning nods of agreement from the other two.

"Hm, well come on. We need to get these two to shelter as soon as possible." Naruto said earning more nods before his partners fell into a defensive triangle formation around their trainer and his clone.

Meanwhile, while this was going on, one snake using nin was thoroughly pissed. Why you might ask. For the simple fact that he had bought the Kyubi child's bluff. After five minutes of heading towards where he knew his medic would be, Orochimaru had finally realized that he should have at least felt the first symptoms of a paralyzing poison if what the blond trainer had said about whatever form he had taken was true. But so far, all he had was a rather big bug bite. He'd been played for a fool!

Still, he would mark the boy eventually and right now he was on his way to intercept a chakra presence that he was very familiar with and that he was looking forward to meeting again. After all, she should provide enough entertainment to get his mind off the Kyubi child.

Said kunoichi was currently tree hopping towards the large explosion she had seen a short while ago hoping it had something to do with her former teacher and not some pyro junkie of a Gennin who had over twenty A-rank paper bombs set to go off all at once.

As Anko stopped on a branch for a minute, she smirked and said "Hello sensei. Long time no see."

Behind her, Orochimaru's face in a tree muttered "Impossible." before completely demerging with the tree it was in showing the Sannin.

Anko turned around and her smirk turned into a frown as she said "What are you doing back in the Leaf Orochimaru?"

Orochimaru chuckled and said "Ah, what happened to sensei, my dear Anko? But if you must know, I learned of a couple of potential bearers of my mark that I wanted to test. I was already able to mark one of them but the other proved rather slippery. Then when I sensed you coming, I decided to have a little reunion."

Anko's eyes narrowed and she said "Oh yeah? And just who would interest you enough that you would come here personally?"

Orochimaru rose an eyebrow and said "Why Anko, are you jealous? But to answer your question, it's Sasuke-kun and the Kyubi child of course."

"You bastard. You're still after the Sharingan? And why the Uzumaki kid?" Anko growled out.

"Ku, Ku, Ku. Sasuke-kun will come to me seeking power to kill his brother and when he does, my ambition shall be fulfilled. As for Naruto-kun, he holds the most powerful demon inside of him. That as well as the fact that he is able to turn into such amazing creatures is more than enough to want him wouldn't you say?" Orochimaru asked as his long tongue licked his lips as he finished speaking.

"You are one sick bastard." Anko said getting ready to fight her former sensei.

But before either one made a move, eight cries of the same voice shouted out "Transform! Flamethrower!" Right after, eight streams of fire slammed into where Orochimaru was standing as eight light green blurs shot down towards the forest floor before breaking off into four pairs of two and coming around and stopping in front of Anko who stared at the Flygons as they hovered in front of her.

As two kept an eye on the fire that was still burning and the rest kept an eye on the rest of the forest, the closest Flygon turned to Anko and said "Listen, we don't have time to explain right now, so hop on."

Anko blinked, but before she could ask just what the hell kind of summon the clones were, the group heard "Ku, Ku, Ku, My that was unexpected. Who knew you could turn into such a creature Naruto-kun."

The clone closest to where Orochimaru had appeared scoffed and said "Boss isn't here right now. Please leave a message after the tone: beep."

Orochimaru chuckled and said "And you clones have such a sense of humor as well."

The clone by Anko looked at her and said "Get on now."

Anko looked like she was about to argue before she saw the look in the clone's eyes that said if she didn't then the clone was just going to carry her and so quickly hopped on.

"And what makes you think I'll let you all just leave?" Orochimaru asked in a lazy tone of voice."

"This." The closest clone said as it made a hand sign and was covered in smoke before it cleared revealing a four foot eleven Dragon Flying Hybrid type called Salamence that was predominately blue with red wings, a long tail, and a face that looked like it had a pointed butterfly mask on it..

"You want our Proctor, your going to have to get through me first." The clone said before looking over to his brothers and said "Get going, I'll hold him off for you guys."

The clone holding Anko nodded and said "Don't leave us too soon brother."

The Salamence clone nodded before turning back to face Orochimaru as the others took off towards the edge of the forest.

As the clones took off, Orochimaru studied the Salamence clone wondering why he suddenly felt uneasy for some reason. He briefly considered the thought that the clone was an exploding one but dismissed it seeing as how he doubted the Kyubi child would send exploding clones to recover his exam proctor.

The clone seeming to sense the Sannin's unease grinned and said "What's wrong Orochimaru? Don't tell me this form's Intimidate ability is getting to you already? I would have thought one of the Legendary Three would have been made of sterner stuff."

'Intimidate ability?' Orochimaru wondered before filing that tidbit away and chuckled before saying "Do me a favor clone and tell those other clones when you dispel to tell Anko not to cancel the exams or I'll destroy the Leaf village."

The clone growled and said "They won't have to. Because by the time I'm done with you, the exams will be long over by the time you can even think about walking again!"

The clone flapped its wings and then launched itself at Orochimaru who leaped out of its way before the clone swung its tail at Orochimaru sending the Snake Sannin into a tree.

Scene Change: Path To Training Ground 44 Two Miles From Training Ground

Sarutobi was running towards training ground 44 with a team of Anbu after he had received word that his former student was discovered to be in the area. All of a sudden , the five Leaf nin heard a cry of "Old Man!"

The Hokage and Anbu team looked up and saw a large grey bird that looked like it was made of metal dive down on their position and landing in front of Sarutobi before being covered in smoke revealing Naruto.

Sarutobi frowned and said "Naruto, what are you doing here?"

'Naruto' shook his head and said "Not Naruto Old Man, shadow clone. We got attacked by some Snake Face freak called Orochimaru in the forest and Sasuke got bit and some weird mark appeared on his neck. Boss sent me to come find you."

Sarutobi frowned and said "I see, so he has already struck. Is Naruto and Sakura alright?"

Naruto nodded and said "Yeah, Sakura's just unconscious and boss was able to keep that pedophile from biting him until he tricked him to leave."

Sarutobi's eyes hardened further and he asked "He was after both Sasuke and Naruto?"

The clone nodded and said "Yeah, apparently he heard about boss' transformations and partners and wanted in on that as well as fuzz butt's power and decided he wanted to give boss a hickey like he did Sasuke." The clone then suddenly stiffened and looked into the forest with a frown.

"What is it?" Sarutobi asked.

"Boss had sent a small squad of clones to get the proctor of our test after our fight since she had a mark on her neck like Sasuke's and Orochimaru was heading toward her position. They were supposed to get in and get out but one of them stayed behind to slow him down. During their fight, Orochimaru said not to cancel the exams or he would destroy the village. The Pedophile just killed him."

Sarutobi frowned and said "I see. Where are these clones headed and where is the original now?"

The clone made a quick hand sign and another clone appeared before quickly dispelling and ten seconds later he said "Boss is currently holed up under a tree for the night. He plans to head to the tower in the morning. The squad with the Proctor is currently on its way here and will be here in about two minutes."

Sarutobi nodded and said "Understood. Please let Naruto know that I want to talk to him as soon as he reaches the tower but not to move Sasuke until his condition stabilize Curse Seals only have a one in ten chance of the person cursed surviving and I don't want to take the chance that moving him to the tower will diminish his chances anymore.. We will wait here for Anko so you can go ahead and dispel."

The clone nodded and said "Yes sir." before vanishing in a cloud of smoke.

In a cave formed out of the roots of a tree in the Forest of Death, Naruto looked towards where his clone had been and thought 'I wonder what could be so important that the Old Man would want to talk to me in person instead of with one of my clones.'

He was brought out of his thoughts by a groaning sound drawing his and his partners' attention to Sakura as she sat up putting a hand to her head and said "What happened? The last thing I remember is some snake freak attacking Sasuke-kun, Sasuike-kun!"

Naruto looked over from where he was keeping watch from the entrance of the cave and said "Good to see you too Sakura."

Sakura jerked in surprise and had already reached for a kunai before she had recognized her other teammate and visibly relaxed and said "Naruto, what happened? What's wrong with Sasuke-kun?"

Naruto looked back outside as he said "Well that snake freak as you called him seems to have given Sasuke what is called a Curse Mark. According to the Old Man, the person who gets it only has a one in ten chance of living so he doesn't want us to move Sasuke until he stabilizes. Still, even if I don't like the guy, Sasuke's a fighter. He'll pull through this. Anyway, I heard him talking about how he wanted to mark me as well since I'm able to transform into Pokemon and use their attacks and I turned into a rock type to keep him from marking me while trying to blow him away with a exploding clone that was transformed into a Pokemon that weighs just over half a ton."

Sakura's eyes widened and she asked "Did you get him?"

Naruto snorted and said "You're kidding right? The man's a member of the Legendary Three. No way would something like that have got him. No, that was just the opening shot on my end. Made a nice big kaboom though, you should see the trees where we fought. Anyway, after that, we fought for a little bit before I was able to bluff him into leaving. After that, I sent clones out to find us a place where we could spend the night without worrying too much about ambush and told my clones at the tower to keep an eye out for the guy. I then sent a clone to the Old Man and some more clones to the proctor since she had a mark on her neck that looks just like the one on Sasuke's. I figured she would know what to do since she was probably a failed experiment of Orochimaru's. Only problem was he got to her first so one of my clones had to stay behind to let the others get her out of there."

Sakura frowned as she absorbed all of this and said "So what now?"

Naruto glanced over his shoulder at his teammate and said "For now take care of Sasuke. He's been running a really high fever and me and my partners can only do so much since we need to keep watch especially with night coming soon. I have a perimeter of clones around this tree that are supposed to dispel if they spot any hostiles in the area but I can't take the chance that they miss someone."

Sakura nodded and began tending to Sasuke as the sun began setting behind the trees and Naruto and his partners set up a quick watch schedule and dug in for the night.

The next morning, Naruto jerked awake as a few of his clones dispelled showing not one team but two. Naruto frowned as he saw the memory of the Sound team catching a nearby squirrel and discussing their plans as they put an exploding tag on the poor creature's back and then he actually noticed the other memory of Team 10 wandering around nearby.

Naruto glanced over at Sakura who had apparently stayed awake the whole night as she tended to Sasuke. From what he could tell, she was in no condition to fight although thanks to her ministrations, Sasuke's condition seemed to be slightly better. The fact that Wartortle had used Ice Beam on her handkerchief a few times might have helped with his fever though.

Looking back out the cave, he saw the squirrel running towards the cave and quickly made a clone that just as quickly dispelled before a Noctowl clone swooped down and snatched the squirrel from the ground and took off into the forest where it would drop its transformation and take the tag off where the Sound team could not see. Smirking at the faces that he could imagine was on the Sound team's faces, Naruto thought 'Your move.'

In the bushes across the clearing in front of the cave, the Sound team was staring trying to figure out what just happened before Zaku shook his head and said "What the hell! Where did that owl come from, and what the hell has it been eating? That thing had to have been five feet big at least."

Dosu shrugged and said "Who knows, but it'll be dead in a couple of minutes anyway so who cares?"

Kin frowned and said "What now though? It'll look suspicious if another squirrel just happens to head that way again anytime soon."

Dosu frowned under his wraps although neither of his teammates could see this as he considered. Coming to a decision, he said "It seems we will have to finish the mission ourselves. Keep an eye out for traps they might have set up. There don't seem to be any but according to our info one of Sasuke's teammates is known for pulling pranks. It's not a far stretch from pulling pranks to setting traps so be careful."

"Yeah, yeah." Zaku said as the team began to move away from their cover while Kin merely nodded already running a critical eye around the area trying to find anything that would give away a trap. In the tree branch over head, a brown bug with a purple nose and legs as well as a spike on its head and tail looked on before the foot long Pokemon disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

In the roots, Naruto glanced over to his sleeping partners and said "Hey guys, wake up. There's another team out there for you guys to beat."

Wartortle perked up while his two friends instantly woke up when they heard that there was someone to fight outside and they quickly stretched before Wartortle asked something that Sakura couldn't understand.

"It's the Sound Team. They're right outside. I figured since you guys only fought one team yesterday you guys would want to take these guys. Sound good?"

The three Pokemon nodded and Naruto smiled as he said "I thought so. Team 10 is nearby though so be careful with your aim. Also, whoever fights the guy with the gauntlet remember to keep him at a distance until we figure out what he did to that Kabuto guy."

The three nodded again before the conscious occupants in the cave heard a voice outside call out "Sasuke Uchiha! Come out and fight us!"

Sakura's eyes widened as she glanced at the still unconscious Uchiha before Naruto said "I do believe that's our cue guys. Sakura stay here where it's safe."

Sakura nodded and the three walked out of the cave as she thought 'They're leaving me behind again.'

Outside, the Sound Team was standing near the edge of the clearing and when they saw Naruto and his partners their eyes widened at the sight of the three Pokemon before Dosu frowned and said "Where is Sasuke Uchiha?"

Naruto frowned and said "He's currently indisposed. Why do you want to fight him?"

"We were ordered to kill him." Dosu said bluntly.

Naruto's eyebrow went up and he said "By who's orders?"

Zaku scoffed and said "That doesn't concern you weakling. Just get him out here so we can kill him."

Naruto shook his head and said "What part of indisposed do you not understand? Besides, if you're here to kill my teammate than I'm afraid I'll have to stop you, even if the guy is a prick. Have fun guys."

Zaku scoffed as the three Pokemon stepped in front of their trainer ready to do battle and raised his right arm as he said "You really think you weaklings can stop us? Take this, Decapitating Wave!"

Dosu's eyes widened as he saw Charmeleon open his mouth and he shouted "Zaku, wait!" It was too late however as a great rush of air shot out of the tube that was in the palm of his hand towards the Leaf nin and his partners.

Charmeleon grinned around his open mouth as a red glow appeared before a Flamethrower shot out of his mouth and intercepted the wind adding power to the Fire type attack as it continued towards the three Sound nin who quickly jumped out of the way of being Barbequed.

In some bushes off to the side, Ino and Chouji's jaws were on the ground as they saw the flames burning the trunk of the tree it had hit and Shikamaru muttered "Troublesome."

Back with the others, Naruto glanced over to a tree branch as another of his clones dispelled and saw Rock Lee standing on it watching. Naruto frowned and thought 'What's he doing here by himself?' before shrugging and looked back to where his partners had rushed in towards their fights.

Wartortle vs Dosu

Wartortle ran towards his opponent who prepared his Melody Gauntlet. However, before Wartortle was in the range that he had seen the Sound nin attack back before the first exam, he jumped forward and pulled his head and limbs in as his shell dropped to the ground spinning rapidly like a top towards Dosu's legs causing the Sound nin to jump out of the way to avoid being tripped.

Wartortle kept spinning for about five feet before coming out of his Rapid Spin and focused on Dosu opening his mouth and shouted "Bubblebeam!"

Dosu's initial reaction to the bubbles that were rapidly shooting out of the strange turtle creature's mouth was to scoff and dismiss them but his shinobi instincts told him not to take them lightly and so he dodged the attack again and was glad he did when the bubbles floated down to the ground and exploded.

Wartortle frowned and thought to himself 'I should have known that attack wouldn't work. It's mainly to use against Rock and Ground types after all.' He then jumped out of the way and Rapid Spinned away from Dosu who had rushed the Turtle Pokemon trying to get close enough to use his Melody Arm.

Coming out of his spin seven feet away from where Dosu had stopped, Wartortle shouted "Water Pulse!" causing the moisture in the air to quickly condense and then pulse out towards the Sound Nin who saw the attack coming and jumped over the attack which slammed against a tree cracking from its power. Wartortle tracked the Sound nin in the air and called out "Water Gun!" The stream of water shot out of Wartortle's mouth and slammed into the Sound nin sending him into a nearby tree. Acting quickly, Wartortle called out "Ice Beam!" A blue glow appeared in his mouth before a single cold blue beam shot out like lightning from his mouth and hit Dosu's right arm pinning it to the tree and covering the entire arm in ice preventing him from using his primary weapon.

As Dosu struggled to free his arm from the ice, Wartortle lowered his head and gathered power before rushing the nin and slammed into him with a full powered Skull Bash sending the nin through the tree and into unconsciousness. Getting off of his opponent, Wartortle looked over and noticed that Charmeleon was already finished with his own opponent and Ivysaur was done as well sitting by their trainer. Grabbing Dosu's ankle, Wartortle began dragging him towards his trainer who he was sure would like to get some answers.

Charmeleon vs Zaku

Charmeleon rushed his opponent on all fours and let loose another Flamethrower causing Zaku to curse before jumping out of the way before he could blow the Flame Pokemon away with his air tubes..

'Damn it! I can't hit it with my Decapitating Waves or it'll just use that fire style attack again. Guess I'll have to kill it with Taijutsu. What the hell?' Zaku was quickly brought out of his thoughts as Charmeleon opened his mouth and called out "Smokescreen!"

As black smoke poured out of the Fire types mouth and covered the area both were in Zaku scoffed and said "Dumb creature, what was that supposed to do? I can just blow it away, Decapitating Wave!"

The smokescreen cleared and Zaku's eyes widened just in time to see a glowing tail slam into him from his left breaking the arm into pieces and sending the loudmouth flying as he screamed in pain.

Charmeleon walked over to where Zaku landed who was holding his left arm in pain. As he approached him, Zaku looked up and Charmeleon grinned scaring the nin as he said "You seem awfully proud of those arms. Why don't I take away the use of the other one?"

Zaku frowned trying to figure out what the Pokemon had said in its language before Charmeleon's tail began glowing again causing Zaku's eyes to widen. Charmeleon then spun around faster than Zaku could react and slamed his Iron Tail attack into Zaku's other arm sending the nin flying who passed out in pain from landing on one of his broken arms.

Charmeleon shook his head and thought 'What a weakling. I'll never evolve if I have to keep fighting people like him' Glancing over towards the other two fights he saw Wartortle jump away from his opponent before withdrawing into his shell and Rapid Spinning away to gain enough distance to use Water Pulse. Watching the fight for a short while, he shook his head as he saw Wartortle Skull Bash the nin at full power and thought 'That was too much Wartortle. Although I suppose I shouldn't talk considering what I allowed my battle side to do.' Glancing back down to his own opponent, he frowned before heading over to his trainer deciding not to antagonize his opponent further by moving him even if he was unconscious.

Ivysaur vs Kin

As Ivysaur ran towards his opponent he quickly sent an opening Razor Leaf barrage at the Kunoichi who quickly rolled out of the way before throwing a brace of senbon needles at the Seed Pokemon in retaliation who also dodged the thrown weapons.

Kin smirked and said "Well now, it seems we're both too agile to hit, but I'm afraid the fight's already won."

Ivysaur looked at her annoyed and said "What are you talking about?"

Kin frowned at the fact that the creature in front of her seemed to say something but she couldn't understand before shrugging it off and said "Anyway, like I said, this fight is over." before pulling her hand back and Ivysaur began hearing the tinkling of bells behind him.

Looking back, the Grass Poison hybrid noticed the bells attached to the senbon and the thread that ran back to Kin. Glancing back just in time to see Kin pull the threads again he suddenly began seeing two Kins which quickly turned into five.

Ivysaur frowned and thought 'This must be Genjutsu. She must use it so that way the target can't fight back. Well two can play that game.'

Kin meanwhile was smirking as Ivysaur stopped moving and said "I bet right now your seeing five of me aren't you. But how do you know which is the real one and which ones are fake?"

But just as she took out another brace of senbon needles to throw at the Pokemon who was still just standing there, a scent that she could only describe as heaven on earth began floating around in the air originating from Ivysaur's plant bulb causing Kin to suddenly loose any will to fight anymore.

'W-what's going on? Why do I feel like this?" Kin wondered as Ivysaur smirked as it felt the Genjutsu over him drop and noticed the vacant look on his opponent's face from his Sweet Scent. Knowing that it wouldn't last much longer, Ivysaur quickly wrapped his opponent in a Vine Whip which had the effect of snapping her out of her aroma induced trance.

Realizing the situation she was in, Kin began squirming and shouted "Hey let me go!"

Ivysaur just looked at her as if asking if she was crazy before shooting her with a Leech Seed and draining her energy. After the usual ten seconds, the vines from the seed stopped glowing red and retracted into the seed before the seed itself dropped off of Kin's now unconscious form.

As Ivysaur lowered his opponent to the ground and retracted his vines, he glanced over towards the other fights and saw Charmeleon slam his tail into Zaku's left arm. Shaking his head at what was to him needless violence, the Grass type began heading towards his trainer who nodded to him and said "Good job Ivysaur."

Ivysaur nodded and sat down by his trainer. As the two watched Wartortle's fight, Naruto said "Don't look now, but Neji's here."

Ivysaur blinked before looking at his trainer who in turn was looking at the branch where Lee was. Standing there with him now were his two teammates. Ivysaur frowned and wondered what they were doing here. He had nothing against Lee since he seemed alright when he fought his trainer and he didn't know the girl with the two boys so he couldn't say anything about her, but Neji had an attitude problem that to Ivysaur just begged to have beaten out of him.

He was brought out of his musings by Charmeleon coming over and asking "What are they doing here?"

Ivysaur shrugged and said "That's what I'd like to know."

"Maybe they came to see us fight."Wartortle said as he finished dragging Dosu over towards Naruto who nodded towards him before looking back up at the tree branch the team was in who he noticed were beginning to turn to jump into the forest.

Making a split second decision, Naruto called out "Hey, Team 9!"

The team looked back towards the blond and Neji said "What is it Dead Last?"

Naruto ignored the Dead Last comment and said "Do you guys have both scrolls? I'm only asking because I've already sent seven teams of clones out into the forest and they already took out their teams and are waiting for me at the top of the tower to give me the scrolls they collected before dispelling. If you want, you can join us at the tower and get a scroll." Turning to the bushes where he knew Team 10 was he said "You guys can do the same if you want Team 10."

Team 10 stood up and Ino asked "How did you know we were there?"

Naruto made a gesture around them and said "Same way I knew the Sound team and Team 9 was here. Shadow Clones." Turning back to Team 10 he said "So what will it be guys?"

Neji frowned and said "We don't need your help Dead Last."

But as he was turning to go back into the forest, TenTen said "We'll come with you."

Neji spun around and hissed "What?"

TenTen looked at him and said "Think about it Neji. If he's telling the truth, then a good chunk of the scrolls are already at the tower. And if he's not, then we can just take his scrolls when we get to the tower."

Naruto smirked and said "You guys could try." Turning to look at Team 10 he said "And you guys?"

Shikamaru sighed and said "Troublesome. We might as well since we don't have our second scroll yet."

Naruto nodded, but before he could tell the two teams about how they had to wait for Sasuke to wake up before they could head to the tower, a chakra that felt extremely foul and just plain wrong to the blond exploded from the cave and Sakura shouted "Naruto get in here!"

Naruto frowned and turned to run over to the cave, but before he got more than five steps towards it, Sasuke walked out with Sakura following looking unsure of herself. And with good reason too considering the fact that Sasuke had flame markings over half his face and a semi crazed look on his face.

Naruto frowned as he and the others took in Sasuke's appearance before Sasuke clenched his fist and said in a low voice that everyone still heard "This power, I see, that is what he meant. It feels good. But I have to test it to make sure it can stand up to HIM."

Looking up, he noticed Naruto and he grinned and said "Ah Naruto, you'll make a good test of this power. Fight me."

Naruto frowned and said "Not now Sasuke. There will be plenty of time to do that during the third exam."

Sasuke scowled and shouted "No! You'll fight me now!" before disappearing and slammed a fist into Naruto's stomach sending him flying causing everyone else besides Neji's eyes to widen in shock at Sasuke attacking his teammate.

Naruto's Pokemon instantly reacted to the threat of their trainer with Charmeleon attacking with Shadow Claw and Wartortle and Ivysaur coming in on either side with Tackle.

Before the three attacks could land though Sasuke seemed to phase out as an afterimage took the three attacks as he went after Naruto again who by that time was already on his feet making a handsign. Just as Sasuke reached Naruto and punched him, the blond was covered in smoke and a bluish grey hand grabbed the fist stopping it in its tracks as the smoke cleared revealing a five foot three Machamp.

The four armed Superpower Pokemon quickly grabbed Sasuke's other arm and pinned the Uchiha down before one of his upper arms came down and chopped the back of Sasuke's neck knocking him out before he could struggle too much.

Naruto sighed as the marks receded from Sasuke's faces and returned to the seal and he dropped the transformation before he heard "What the hell was that about?"

Naruto looked over to where Team 9 was now walking towards him and told TenTen "Well if I had to take a guess, I'd say that Sasuke's new curse mark makes him a little bit battle happy."

"Curse mark?" Lee asked.

Naruto gave a shrug and said "Some snake guy gave him a hickey that left this weird mark on his neck. He's been out cold ever since until just now. The Old Man told us not to move him until he was stable although we should be able to go now."

"Fine, then let's go." Neji said as he turned and began walking toward the tower.

"Uh Neji, where are you going?" Naruto asked.

Neji turned to look at Naruto like he was an idiot and said "I'm heading to the tower."

Naruto smirked before he looked around the woods and said "Hey guys, Neji actually wants to get to the tower the long way. He must want to get some exercise."

Laughter filled the area and the two teams looked around in anticipation as various creatures they never saw before showed themselves before being covered in smoke revealing them to be shadow clones that had been transformed.

As this was going on, Neji and the others were frowning and he said "And how to you expect us to get to the tower if we don't begin heading there Dead Last?"

Naruto and the clones grinned before they all made hand signs and were covered in smoke. As it cleared, it revealed each of the blonds transformed into Alakazams.

Naruto smirked at Neji and said "One word Neji: Teleport."

As soon as the last word was out of his mouth, Naruto was covered in a blue shell and he and his partners who had quickly grabbed a hold of the Psi Pokemon all disappeared in a flash of blue.

"What the?" Ino asked before a clone put a hand on her shoulder and quickly teleported out of the area.

"Troublesome." Shikamaru muttered before also vanishing in a flash of blue.

Ten seconds later, everyone had a clone with a hand on their shoulder and was gone leaving the Sound team the only people in the clearing.

Scene Change: Top Of The Tower Of Forest Of Death

Several flashes of blue alerted the clones on top of the tower that they had company. Recognizing the signs of a Teleport, Clone Nine quickly stood at attention prompting the other clones to come over as the Teams looked around in surprise while the clones that brought them began to dispel themselves.

"Good to see you in good health sir." Clone Nine said as he reached into one of the scroll holsters on his vest and pulled out the scroll he had taken from the Rain team he had killed and handed it to his creator.

"Thanks. Did any of you have problems getting your scrolls?" Naruto asked as he accepted the scroll.

The clones all shook their heads no as each team handed in their scroll. Naruto then turned to the two other teams and said "So what scrolls do you guys have?"

"Earth." Shikamaru said.

"Heaven." Neji stated coldly.

Naruto eyed Neji for a moment before shrugging and tossing the needed scrolls to the two teams before recalling his partners. He then walked over to Sasuke's prone form and picked him up in a fireman's lift before turning to his remaining clones to give orders.

"Alright guys, we're going to head in now. I need you guys to stay out here and keep an eye out for any other teams that come to the tower. I want one clone to dispel each night this test goes on regardless of if a team comes through or not. Also, if you happen to see that Snake Face one of you dispel immediately so I can let the Old Man know. Understand."

The clones each nodded before moving back to their posts around the top of the tower to keep an eye on the forest.

Turning to his conscious teammate, Naruto made a follow me motion with his free hand and walked over to the edge of the tower before he walked over the side down to the ground using the tree climbing exercise with Sakura behind him. Back on top, the other two teams quickly went to opposite sides of the tower and went down to the first floor of the tower as well.

Once on the forest floor, Naruto walked around the tower until he found a door nearby that had a piece of paper on it showing that no one had used it yet and led Sakura over to it before opening the door breaking the seal.

Once inside, Naruto looked around and noticed the poem on the wall and rose an eyebrow as he read it.

'If you lack Heaven, seek wisdom, be prepared. If you lack Earth, run in the fields, seek advantages. And if you have both Heaven and Earth, you can succeed in even the most dangerous mission. These rules will guide a _ extremes. Now where have I heard that before? Still, the proctor said not to open the scrolls until we reached the tower so since we're here I guess I might as well.'

Smoke filled the room drawing Sakura's attention as Naruto set Sasuke down on the floor before handing the four clones a scroll before tossing one to Sakura who hastily caught it before Naruto held up the last scroll and said "On three guys, one, two, three."

The scrolls opened and began smoking prompting them to toss the scrolls away before three plumes of smoke erupted from the smoke putting Naruto and Sakura on edge until they heard a voice that they were extremely familiar with.

"Well now, I'm impressed Naruto. It only took you two days to get to the tower and it's not even lunch time yet."

AN: Whoo, over 9,000 words, that's a new record right there. Hope you all enjoyed it.


	14. Sarutobi'

14. Sarutobi's Concern/The Preliminaries Part One

"Well now, I'm impressed Naruto. It only took you two days to get to the tower and it's not even lunch time yet."

Naruto grinned as he dispelled his clones and said "Yeah, well we would have been here sooner but we had a few difficulties."

The smoke from the summoning scrolls finally dispersed completely and gave Naruto and Sakura a view of their smirking academy teacher and two other Chunin before they noticed the unconscious Uchiha on the floor.

"What's wrong with the Uchiha?" One of the Chunin asked as he moved over to check him.

Naruto shrugged and said "The mark that the Snake Faced Pedophile Orochimaru gave him made him a bit battle happy when he had finally woke up from it. When he attacked me, I had to knock him out."

All three Chunin frowned at this before Iruka realized that he still had a job to do and cleared his throat before saying "I see, well anyway, I'm sure your wondering what we're doing here. It was actually supposed to just be me here to explain this but since you collected so many scrolls-"

Naruto shrugged at the questioning look of the three Chunin and said "I had clones go into the forest to thin down the competition a bit."

The other two Chunin made 'oh' faces while Iruka merely smirked again and thought 'Why am I not surprised he did something like that? Looks like Kakashi was right, prankster from hell turned true shinobi indeed.' Iruka shook his head and said "Right, anyway take a look at this poem here."

Iruka pointed to the poem on the wall and said "Part of the reason why we Chunnin were to be summoned is to make sure each person understands the message on the scroll. This poem was put here by the Hokage and is the directive set down by the Third Lord Hokage for all Chunin ninja."

Naruto rose an eyebrow and thought 'That's why I thought I had heard this poem before. I had read it once in the library when it talked about what's required for Chunin."

Iruka noticing the eyebrow said "Something wrong Naruto?"

Naruto shook his head and said "No Iruka-sensei, I had just remembered why the poem sounded so familiar to me. I had read it once in a book that talked about the different levels of being a ninja. But it wasn't very clear on what the poem meant."

Iruka nodded and went into lecture mode as he said "Well, in the text, the word 'Heaven' refers to the human mind and 'Earth' refers to the human body. 'If qualities of Heaven are your desire, acquire wisdom and knowledge to take your mind higher.' In other words, if you have a problem with academic knowledge or just knowledge in general, then you need to study hard and learn the principles that will help you on missions.

"And, 'If Earthly qualities are what you lack, train your body in the fields and prepare to attack.' If your weak point is with your lack of strength and power, you need to train hard and find the riches of physical stamina and skill.

"And once you access the qualities of both Heaven and Earth, no mission, however dangerous, will be a wrong path for you. You'll be walking a safe path, even in the midst of the most perilous mission. Well, that's it!"

"Wait Iruka sensei," Sakura said pointing to the scroll. "What's about that blank space? What goes there?"

Iruka smiled at them before picking up one of the summoning scrolls and said "The word that goes there is a description of what a Chunin should be. The single character that belongs in the blank space is the one from the interior of the scrolls. It's "Jin," meaning one person or all people.

"The challenge of seeing who survived this period of five days is a part of the exam designed to test the applicants' basic Chunin abilities. Chunin are the unit commander class… Responsible for leading their teams. They can only do so by a combination of intelligence and strength. I can't emphasize it enough. Learn it… live it. Believe it from the bottom of your heart! Keep the Chunin directive foremost in your mind as you move on to the next exam. That's it, that's the entire message. Now do you understand you two?"

Sakura nodded as Naruto saluted and said "Aye Captain!"

Iruka smirked at Naruto's antics before he frowned as he looked at his three former students.

Naruto frowned in confusion and said "Hey sensei, is something wrong?"

Iruka was silent for a minute before he said "Naruto, Sakura, about the third exam. Don't overdo things. You two and Sasuke already have what it takes to possibly be a Chunnin, but these exams are dangerous. So do me a favor and keep a level head when you take it alright?"

Naruto and Sakura both nodded and Naruto said "Don't worry Iruka-sensei, we will." Gesturing to Sasuke, he said "Is that it? I need to take Sasuke to the infirmary that I'm sure this place has and then the Old Man told a clone of mine he wants me to see him as soon as possible."

Everyone looked at Sasuke and the three Chunin frowned as they were once again reminded of the mark on the Uchiha's neck but Iruka pushed thoughts of the mark and what it implied and simply nodded before telling them where the infirmary was as well as where their rooms for the rest of the test and the cafeteria was.

After that, one of the Chunin, a man with goggle style sunglasses stepped forward and said "Uzumaki, do you mind if my partner here takes Sasuke to the infirmary while I show you where the Lord Hokage is? We shouldn't keep him waiting if he wants to see you."

Naruto nodded and the man's partner bent down from where he was standing next to Sasuke and picked him up in a fireman's lift before Shunshining away. The other Chunin made a follow me motion before jumping up to the balcony that ran along one side of the room and went through the door that was connected to it with Naruto right behind him.

Once they were gone, Iruka turned to Sakura and said "How about I show you where your team's room is Sakura? You look like you could use some sleep."

Sakura nodded and followed Iruka as he went through the door that was on the ground floor as he led one of his more book smart students to the room that would be her team's for the next few days.

Scene Change: Lounge, Seventh Floor of the Tower

A knocking at the door was heard by the occupants of the lounge and Sarutobi called out "Enter!"

As Naruto and his Chunin escort entered the room, he saw the Hokage with his exam proctor as well as four Anbu and the seven clones that had survived the encounter with Orochimaru. The clones gave brief salutes before dispelling one at a time giving Naruto their memories. Naruto quickly sorted them before Sarutobi began speaking.

"Naruto, I would like you to tell us what exactly happened in the forest."

Naruto nodded and began explaining what had happened in the forest starting with how he had been away from his team when they were attacked, how he knew they were attacked and then how he transformed into the fastest Flying type he could in order to get there as quickly as possible since he didn't think it would be a good idea to Teleport there.

He then went on to explain his encounter with Orochimaru showing the Pokemon that he and his clones turned into with the help of Dex and then told the Old Man about his decision to send a clone to him and a small squad to Anko when one of his clones realized that Orochimaru was headed her way.

After that he talked about how his team was attacked by the Sound team that morning and how his partners handled them before he Teleported his team and teams 9 and 10 to the top of the tower where they met up with the clones that had gone after the other teams. Naruto explained the orders he had given to the clones before he and Sakura went to the base of the tower and opened their scrolls once inside.

As Naruto finished speaking, Sarutobi was frowning while looking like he was in deep thought about something. Finally, he looked up at the blond and said "Thank you Naruto. You have done well in this exam and given us much to think about. Why don't you go to the cafeteria and get something to eat. I'm sure you must be hungry."

Naruto nodded at the clear dismissal before bowing to his leader and left the lounge with his Chunin escort following.

As the door closed, one of the Anbu said "Sir, is it wise to continue these exams while Orochimaru is here?"

Sarutobi frowned and said "Wise? No, but until we know what Orochimaru is planning, we cannot risk an attack on the village. Still the fact that he marked Sasuke and tried to mark Naruto is very concerning. I want all Anbu to be on the lookout for Orochimaru. Don't engage him if you see him though, report immediately to me instead. That goes for you as well Anko."

Everyone in the room nodded and Sarutobi dismissed his Anbu so that they could spread the word.

Scene Change: Tower Battle Room, Fifth Day Of Exam

It had been three days since Naruto and the others had Teleported to the tower. And although his clones never did spot Orochimaru in the area close to the tower, he couldn't shake the feeling that he was still here somewhere. He could tell the Old Man felt the same as he asked Naruto to report to him immediately if his clones up on the tower's top saw anything unusual.

He had seemed even more preoccupied with the mark on Sasuke's neck though. When Naruto had seen Kakashi later that night, he had been told that the mark had been taken care of with a seal. Naruto didn't know all the details though and just hoped he wouldn't have to knock out his teammate again even if it had felt good to do so back in the forest.

Now Team 7 and the rest of the teams that made the deadline were all standing in rows with their Jounin teachers as well as the Hokage, their second exam proctor and the Chunin that had explained the scrolls to the various teams in front of them inside a large room that was obviously designed to hold matches in it with a balcony going along two of the walls and a large statue showing two arms in the ram seal.

Glancing around at the teams that had made the deadline, Naruto was not surprised that all three rookie teams as well as Team 9 was here since he had escorted most of them himself and his clones had seen Team 8 enter the tower. The same was true for the Sand team. He was surprised however that the Sound Team had managed to get both scrolls. He also noticed that Kabuto's team had made the cut as well.

'Hm, mostly leaf teams and all those had been formed either this year or last year. Gotta wonder what that says about the older generations.' Naruto mused to himself before Anko began speaking.

"Congratulations to all of you on passing the second exam, now listen up! Lord Hokage himself will explain about the third exam. Listen well and take every word he says to heart! They're all yours my lord."

Sarutobi nodded and said "Very well. The third examination is about to commence. But before I go into the specifics of how it will be conducted, let me make one thing perfectly clear! It pertains to the underlying purpose of the exam."

All of the Gennin each looked confused as they thought 'Purpose?'

Lowering his hat to shadow his eyes, Sarutobi continued his speech.

"Why do you suppose an examination of this nature is being jointly conducted by all of the nations in our mutual alliance? "To promote the friendship among allied nations and raise the level and standards in the art of the shinobi…" Be very clear about what those fine-sounding phrases actually means!

"This series of so-called examinations is in fact…" Sarutobi sighed and took his pipe out for a moment to exhale the smoke in his lungs before putting it back in his mouth. Looking up at the Gennin with a dead serious look that Naruto had rarely seen on his face before, Sarutobi said "A war in miniature between all of our allied lands."

All of the Gennin's eyes widened at this and the TenTen asked "Wh-what do you mean?"

Sarutobi's eyes met each Gennin before he said "If you were to study our recent history and consult a map it would swiftly become apparent that our alliance is in fact a temporary and mutually beneficial agreement between a group of geographically contiguous lands."

Naruto frowned and asked "So are we nothing more than pawns in a glorified war game? What ever happened to using the exams to select Chunnin?"

Sarutobi focused solely on Naruto and said "Make no mistake. When this exam is done, it will have had the side effect of winnowing out any applicants unfit to ascend to the level of Chunin. But even more importantly, it serves as an arena wherein, for the honor of their respective homelands you shinobi may fight, to the death if need be!"

"Honor of their lands?" Ino asked confused.

"This third examination will be conducted under the watchful eyes of a number of distinguished guests including the rulers and nobility of the various lands you all aspire to serve. And among their number will be those who rule over each country's own hidden ninja villages. They will be watching you.

"If any one nation's applicants demonstrate outstanding skill and superiority, the noblemen from every land will be quick to commission work from those that trained in that superior nation. Conversely, if a particular country's applicants are shown to be incompetent of feeble, commissions to agents of that country will dwindle.

"And when one land is strong in battle, and the village coffers overflow with the fruits of the many outside commissions this begets, then that village may say to its neighbors "Beware, for we possess prowess and riches and the influence of political power"!"

"SO?" Kiba asked loudly "Why is it necessary to stake our lives and fight?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Naruto asked quietly from his spot with his team earning everyone's attention as he continued speaking. "The villages' leaders want us to risk our lives because it is only when we are truly pushed to the limits do we show what we are truly capable of. Isn't that right Old Man?"

Sarutobi nodded and said "Naruto is right Kiba. The strength of a country is derived from the strength of its village. And the village draws strength from the shinobi who live there. And the greatest strength of those shinobi only emerges in the midst of a desperate life-and-death battle!

"These exams provide a public arena for each country to show off and boast of the strength of its warriors, and hence the strength of the country itself! This test has meaning and great consequence. As you struggle for the sake of your lives and your people, you help to fulfill the dream that was envision by our ancestors."

"But you've always emphasized the concept of "Friendship"…Why?" TenTen asked.

Sarutobi's eyes took an even harder glint in them reminding Naruto why he was called the God of Shinobi as he said "Though my meaning is subtle, I chose my words with care. To preserve the balance of power at the risk of lives is the essence of friendship in the world of shinobi. Let me reiterate before the third exam begins, you are taking no ordinary test! You risk not only your own futures and your dreams, but the dignity and prestige of your home village as well."

'I see.' Naruto thought. 'No wonder the Old Man was always so interested in who made it to the finals whenever I visited him while the Chunin exams were going on.'

"Whatever. Could you wrap up the philosophical talk and get down to the life-and death stuff any time soon?" Gaara asked.

Sarutobi hmphed but before he could say anything, everybody suddenly felt like they were in the presence of some kind of massive dragon. Everyone's eyes widened as they traced the source back to Naruto who was staring at Gaara coldly for disrespecting the person who he considered to be like a grandfather to him.

Naruto somehow made the presence he had unintentionally given off even stronger as he said "Listen Gaara, I don't care what you can or can't do back in the Sand village. But disrespect the Old Man like that again and I'll send you packing."

Naruto's Pokeballs vibrated showing his partners' agreement with that statement although only those who had seen them had any idea what that meant. Gaara stared at him impassively before Sarutobi chuckled bringing everyone's attention back to him.

"Thank you Naruto, but Gaara is right in a way. It is time to explain the third exam."

Right after he finished speaking, a Jounin appeared in front of him in an impressive display of speed already in the bowing position as he said "Forgive my interruption, Lord Hokage, but if you don't mind handing the rest of the proceedings over to me, Gekko Hayate, proctor of the third exam."

Sarutobi nodded and the man stood up and turned around showing everyone a face that looked very sick as he said "Okay, good to meet you everyone, I'm Hayate. Uhhh, before we start the exam, I must ask you all to do something for me. Koff koff."

'Is he really our proctor? Guy looks like he should be in a bed instead.' were the general thoughts that ran through the Gennin's heads.

"Umm, you see, there are some preliminaries to the exam proper. And whether you proceed to the main exam is contingent on how well you manage those."

"Preliminaries? Like what?" Shikamaru yelled not wanting to more work than he had to.

"Master Hayate, I don't understand what you meant by preliminaries. Why can't all of the remaining applicants just proceed directly to the next exam?" Sakura asked.

"Weell" Hayate drawled, "I don't want to say that the first two exams weren't demanding enough, but the truth is, koff, we still have too many applicants. Under the traditional rules of the exam, we have to have a preliminary test to reduce the number of applicants to proceed to the third exam. This is because as Lord Hokage mentioned, a number of honored guests will be observing you during the third exam so we must make the exam intense, tight, and fast-moving.

"Hmmm, so anyway, now that you know something of what it's really all about, anyone who doesn't feel up to the challenge, either physically or mentally, can walk away. Just take one step forward, Koff, Koff, because the preliminaries start…right now!"

"Now?" Kiba shouted.

Naruto's eyes swept over all of the other Gennin as various plans on how to fight each one ran through his head based off of what he knew about them.

He was brought of his thoughts though when Kabuto rose his hand and said "Well, I'm outta here."

Hayate coughed as he said "Ummm, Aren't you Yakushi Kabuto of the Leaf? Okay, you can go."

As Kabuto walked away, Naruto narrowed his eyes and thought 'Why would he quit? Isn't this the seventh time taking it? Surely he isn't that tired from doing the forest run.'

All three of the Pokeballs suddenly vibrated from his partners telling him that they were getting bad vibes from the nin and Naruto tapped out an agreement.

Hayate meanwhile coughed again and said "Uhhh, in case I forgot to mention it, from here on in, you fight as individuals not as members of teams. So you can make the decision that's right for you without worrying about anyone else. So, anyone else want out? Show of hands?"

When no one else rose their hands, Hayate said "So no one else is bailing out huh? Ahh, well then, we'll now begin the preliminaries which will consist of individual combat matches, as though this were part of a tournament. As there are a total of 20 combatants remaining, we will hold a total of 10 bouts. Umm, and the victors of those bouts will advance to the third exam.

"This is no-holds-barred combat. Each pair of combatants will fight until one of them is dead or unconscious, or admits defeat. As soon as you sense that your opponent is overpowering you, immediately concede your loss, if you value your life. Koff, uhhh, since we don't want a total bloodbath on our hands, there may be cases where we ascertain that there is an undisputed winner and step in to end the match. But don't count on that. From here on out the key to your fate is held in…"

Anko spoke into a headset and a rumbling was heard as one of the panels behind the right arm of the stature lifted to reveal a score board.

"This electronic score board. At the start of every round, we will display the names of the two combatants competing in that match. Koff. So, ummm, not to hurry you all to the slaughter, but let's begin. We'll now announce the first two names."

The board lit up and began running through all of the names until it stopped on two: Sasuke Uchiha VS Yoroi Akado

Sasuke smirked at being chosen right off the bat while light glinted off of Kabuto's teammate.

"Will the individuals whose names are listed on the board come forward now?" Hayate asked prompting the two to break out of formation and walk over in front of the proctor before turning to face each other.

"Yoroi Akado, Sasuke Uchiha, you two have been selected to compete in the first bout. Any objections?"

When both fighters shook their head no, Hayate coughed before gesturing to the balconies and said "Uhhh, it's time for the first round to commence, all right? Everyone other than the two combatants should move to the upper gallery now."

Everyone else quickly made their way to the balconies with the Leaf nin going to the right side of the room and the foreign shinobi heading to the right. The adults quickly joined them until only Hayate, Sasuke, and Yoroi were left on the floor.

The two combatants stared at each other as Hayate said "The first match of the preliminaries: Sasuke Uchiha vs. Yoroi Akado. Begin!"

As soon as Hayate's hand chopped down, Yoroi rushed Sasuke with his hand glowing. Sasuke having seen Naruto's own hand glow once when he was fighting Kakashi as a Lucario instantly backpedaled while throwing three shuriken not wanting to take any chances that Yoroi's jutsu would have the same effect Naruto's did.

Yoroi however easily dodged the thrown weapons and quickly closed the distance and launched a punch at Sasuke that he was forced to block. However, Sasuke soon realized that the punch was a feint of sorts as just before Yoroi's fist connected with Sasuke's arm, it opened and grabbed hold of Sasuke.

Sasuke suddenly felt something pulling on his chakra and immediately kicked Yoroi off of him. Glaring at the smug Leaf nin in front of him, Sasuke said "You stole my chakra."

Yoroi smirked and said "That's right. And there's nothing you can do about it brat."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed in anger as they turned into two tomoe Sharingan before he ran through hand signs and shouted "Fire Style: Grand Fireball Jutsu!"

Breathing out the large fireball, Sasuke smirked thinking that his target was toast only to stare in surprise as the fireball died down upon impacting a Yoroi whose entire body glowed taking the chakra out of the fireball as it hit him rendering it to a few embers that failed to catch any part of him on fire.

Yoroi smirked as the glow retreated back to just his right hand and said "Gee, I think I felt a warm breeze just now."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed in anger as he wondered what he should do before remembering Lee kicking a transformed Naruto into the air. Smirking, he rushed with chakra in his legs enhancing his speed towards Yoroi who had just enough time to wonder what the rookie was doing before Sasuke went low to the ground and kicked Yoroi in the chin sending him up high in the air. Sasuke hopped from his position and appeared behind Yoroi with his right pointer finger poking Yoroi's back.

Yoroi looked back and said "Oh, Shadow of the Dancing Leaf?"

"That's right. But everything from here on out is all me." Sasuke said pushing Yoroi a little higher and tried to kick him only to be blocked by Yoroi. But instead of that just being it, Sasuke used the block to spin around Yoroi's back and began laying into Yoroi on his other side until finally kicking him into the concrete floor with a cry of "Lion's Barrage!"

Landing on the ground panting, Sasuke looked up to where Lee was looking down at him and thought 'Thank you Lee. If it hadn't been for you, I would have been in trouble.'

Hayate knelt down and thought 'I can tell even without checking.' Standing back up, he said "Winner by knockout: Sasuke Uchiha!"

Sasuke smirked and began making his way while Sakura and Ino cheered for him saying that they knew he could do it. However, three other people weren't so enthusiastic about Sasuke's win.

'I see. He only saw my Taijutsu once but was able to mimic it near perfectly. The mirror copy wheel eye is truly a fierce tool. I'm slightly afraid.' Lee thought as he glanced towards Sasuke before looking down.

'Like teacher like student eh Kakashi? At least you never stole from your comrades though.' Gai thought.

'That damn thief! He stole Bushy Brow's Taijutsu move when he fought me.' Naruto thought scowling at Sasuke as he made his way up the stairs. When his teammate finally made it to them he said while looking down into the arena purposely not looking at the Uchiha "You just can't help it can you Sasuke?"

Sasuke grunted and said "What are you talking about Dead Last?"

Naruto looked over at Sasuke and suddenly Sasuke felt like he was back in that ice dome facing Haku again as he said "Let me make one thing clear Sasuke. I may be a Dead Last to you. But to me, you're nothing but a thief that doesn't deserve to be called a shinobi."

Sasuke glared at Naruto and Sakura opened her mouth to yell at Naruto before he shifted his gaze at her and she wisely closed it when she saw the look in his eyes before he turned his eyes to the board to see who would be fighting next. Behind his three students Kakashi sighed and thought 'This team is really falling apart.'

The board began running through the next names before stopping on the next match and Hayate glanced back and said "Will Zaku Abumi and Shino Aburame please come down for their match?"

Shino and Zaku both walked down and Naruto rose an eyebrow when he saw that both Zaku's arms were wrapped up and in slings.

'Damn. Charmeleon wasn't messing around when he fought him was he? How is that guy planning on fighting without his arms though?'

On the arena floor, Shino said "Walk away…while you can. If you go through with this you'll get hurt so badly you'll never be the same."

Zaku scoffed and slowly brought out his left arm out of his sling saying "Hah, looks likes this arm still has some life left in it."

Up in the balconies, Naruto rose an eyebrow again before tapping out a question on Charmeleon's Pokeball which vibrated in the positive in response.

Back on the floor, Zaku swung his arm forward and shouted "And I'm betting I can take you with one hand tied. So to speak!"

Seeing that both boys were ready, Hayate said "Begin!" and jumped out of the way as Zaku launched himself at Shino who calmly blocked Zaku's attempted arm strike.

"It'll take more than one arm to beat me." Shino said in his monotone voice.

"Shut up!" Zaku screamed as a Fwuuming sound could be heard before the pipe in Zaku's hand let loose a fierce wind that blew Shino a few feet away drawing shouts of concern from his teammates.

"On your feet Loser!" Zaku shouted.

Shino slowly stood up and everyone who wasn't on his team or knew about the Aburames got the surprise of their lives as they saw beetles of some kind crawling along his skin from under his coat.

Zaku shivered and thought 'Wh-what the? Where are those bugs coming from? It's almost as if they're coming from inside him.'

"Do you like my beetles?" Shino asked. Holding up a finger, a beetle crawled from under his sleeve and stood on it as he continued "They're my family's Kikaichu Parasitic Destruction Beetles. They attack in swarms and devour the chakra of their prey. There's no way you'll survive an onslaught of this magnitude so if you value your life, you'd better surrender. It's your only way out. Use your left-hand strike on me again and they'll instantly be all over your unprotected back."

"What are you talking about?" Zaku asked.

Shino pointed and Zaku turned his head and shouted in surprise as he saw the beetle swarm marching towards him.

Shino adjusted his glasses as he said "Use your left hand to strike against the kikaichu swarm and your front will be open for my attack. You're finished either way. Unless of course you had the foresight to prepare a backup plan."

Zaku growled as he remembered being found on the streets by Orochimaru. Growling, he shouted "Who do you think you're talking to?"

Then to everyone's surprise, Zaku pulled out his right arm out of his sleeve as he shouted out "How's this for a backup plan?"

'Smooth Zaku. Acting like your arm is still paralyzed when in actuality it's really ready to be used. A true ace in the hole.' Dosu thought.

Zaku grinned at Shino and said "It's really you who should have given up, but it's too late now! Decapitating Waves!"

But instead of the expected blasts of air coming out of the pipes, Zaku's arms began to bulge before holes burst all over and his right arm exploded off over the shoulder. As the arm landed, the shattered bones under the shoulder began to fall out making everyone who had barely been holding in the contents of their stomachs lose the battle.

As Zaku fell on his back in pain, Shino walked forward adjusting his sunglasses. Looking up at the bug user, he asked "How?"

Shino looked down at the now one armed nin and said "Simple. You were only concerned with the highly visible beetles. It was easy to sneak individuals into the pipes in your hands. When you next used your attack, the pressure built and had to go somewhere. The sides of your arms were merely the path of least resistance."

"Uh, winner Shino Aburame." Hayate said.

As Shino walked towards the balcony and Zaku was carted off on a stretcher with his arm and bone fragments on top of him, Naruto took a moment to shudder and thought 'I know I can be brutal when I have to be, but I don't know if I could have done that in his place. I think I would have just killed him, it would have been kinder.'

Naruto looked towards the board as it ran through the next two names and glanced back towards the arena floor as Hayate said "Will Misumi Tsurugi and Kankuro please come down for their fight."

As the two contestants made their way down, Naruto saw the briefest shift in the bundle that was wrapped on Kankoru's back. Narrowing his eyes in thought, he glanced over to Kabuto's other teammate who was also making his way down and wondered what would set him apart from those in the room.

Once the two were in front of him, Hayate coughed and said "Are you two ready?"

Once the two nodded, Hayate chopped his hand down and called out "Begin" before jumping back.

Misumi stared at Kankuro and said "Even though you're just a little brat I'm not letting down my guard like Yoroi did. In fact, let me make one thing perfectly clear. You'd be better off forfeiting the match before you get hurt. This won't take long at all."

"I agree." Kankuro said as he slipped the bundle off his back and said "I'll be finished with you in no time."

Misumi's eyes narrowed and he launched himself at Kankuro with his left arm drew back over his right shoulder ready for a strike as he said "Don't try any tricks. I'm going to win this with the first strike!"

Misumi's strike was easily blocked though and everyone in the bleachers was wondering what the guy was on and where they could get some until the guy's arm began wrapping around Kankuro's arm soon joined by his other limbs until Misumi had his entire body wrapped around Kankuro's with his arm around Kankuro's neck.

Up in the balconies, Naruto frowned and looked over to Sarutobi wondering if he had made the same connection to how this guy had moved and Orochimaru did. When Sarutobi sensed Naruto's gaze and gave a small nod, Naruto's frown grew.

Kakashi noticing this said "What is it Naruto?"

Naruto looked to his Sensei and said "I read in a couple of books that Orochimaru was supposed to be able to move around like a snake. What that kid did just now seems to be pretty similar."

Sakura gasped and said "You're right. It's almost exactly like how that snake freak moved up the trees when he attacked."

Kakashi "Hmmed." and looked back to the floor where Misumi had just given his ultimatum to Kankuro of give up or I snap your neck. Kankuro refused and Misumi went through with it causing Kankuro's head to slump forward much to most of the Leaf Gennin's shock.

"He actually did it." Sakura gasped with her hands to her mouth.

"Big mistake." Naruto said just as the face spun around scaring the crap out of Misumi and pretty much everyone else who was unaware of just what exactly Kankuro did for a living as pieces of wood broke off of 'Kankuro's' face revealing more wood underneath as the revealed puppet said "Time to return the favor."

The puppet's clothes' ripped as four more arms shot out and joined the first two as they gave Misumi the ultimate bear hug while the wrapped up bundle suddenly had a hand appear pulling a strap pulling the wrappings away revealing Kankuro in a crouch as he said "Game Over."

Kankuro made a motion with his hand and the puppet began squeezing until everyone heard a series of crunching sounds and most of them flinched as Misumi slumped over unconscious.

As the puppet let go and returned to Kankuro's side, Hayate stepped over and thought 'Talk about a turn around.' "Winner: Kankuro."

Kankuro looked up to the Leaf side balcony and thought "Might as well gather some intelligence while I can.'

As the medics hauled Misumi off, Kankuro began walking up the stairs toward the Leaf teams who were watching him wearily until he reached team 7's position and said "Mind if I watch the rest of the matches here?"

Sasuke gave his universal grunt while Sakura gave a nervous shake of her head. Naruto and Kakashi meanwhile hadn't taken their collective three eyes off of the board as it once again shuffled through names. Kankuro was beginning to think that they weren't going to answer him so was surprised when Naruto said "You really shouldn't have moved so much on your way down. If your opponent had noticed like I did then you could have lost your match instead of winning it."

Kankuro blinked in surprise, but before he could reply, Hayate coughed again and said "Will Sakura Haruno and Ino Yamanaka please come down for their matches."

The two girls stiffened and both walked down for their matches. As they did, Kankuro looked back to Naruto and said "So how did you know that I was in the bundle? Just seeing the twitch that came from me replacing myself with crow wouldn't have been enough."

Sasuke and Kakashi listened in with Sasuke wondering with jealousy and Kakashi wondering at his student's skills of observation.

Naruto though just shrugged and said "My partners had fought another team that had a puppet user during the second exam. After seeing one in action before it wasn't too hard too guess what was on your back. And I doubt you would have that thing twitch like that when it was still wrapped up like it was."

Kankuro gave an "Ah." as Kakashi eye-smiled at his student and Sasuke fumed. Meanwhile down on the floor, Ino had caught Sakura with a chakra string hidden in her hair when she had apparently flipped and had her in the sights of her jutsu.

As the two girls slumped over, Naruto rose an eyebrow and said "What just happened?"

Kakashi looked on and said "The Yamanakas have a jutsu that allows them to take over the bodies of their opponents by suppressing the minds of their opponents."

Naruto said "Ah." He then cupped his hands as 'Sakura' was beginning to raise her hand to forfeit and shouted "Hey Sakura! What the hell do you think your doing? Don't tell me you're actually thinking of letting Ino win like that are you?"

'Sakura' glared at Naruto and shouted "Shut up Naruto! She can't hear yo-"

However, before she could finish the sentence, she began clenching her forehead as if she was having the mother of all migraines before finally making a release sign. As Ino groaned and picked her body off the floor, she looked at Sakura and said "How can there be two of you in there?"

Sakura grinned and said "Wouldn't you like to know?" Turning her head to look at Naruto, she said "Thanks Naruto!"

Naruto gave her a brief salute before turning to Kankuro and said in a voice that neither kunoichi could hear "I've got ten bucks that say they wind up knocking each other out."

Kankuro looked confused and said "Why did you do that if you didn't think either could win then?"

Naruto shrugged and said "Sakura's not from a clan so Ino winning through a clan technique feels like cheating to me."

Kankuro looked at him funny and said "You do know that as shinobi we don't care about that right?"

Naruto nodded and said "Well yeah, but can you honestly call those two shinobi right now? If either one passed the prelims, they would be slaughtered in the finals."

Kankuro looked down to where Naruto jerked his head just as the two girls decked each other which in the end resulted with both of them out cold and found he had to agree.

As Kakashi and Asuma brought their two students back to the balcony and laid them down against the wall next to each other, the board began to once again cycle through names.

Hayate looked over his shoulder and then looked back forward saying "Will Tenten and Temari come down for their match."

"Two kunoichi vs kunoichi matches back to back? And Sakura and Ino aren't even awake yet to see this. That board has a sick sense of humor." Naruto said as he watched the two kunoichi make their way down.

Kakashi chuckled while Tenten who had heard Naruto as she walked down grinned and thought 'Oh I agree blondie. It really is too bad that those two won't be able to see how a true kunoichi fights.'

Once the two kunoichi were in front of each other, Hayate asked "Are you two ready?"

When the two girls both nodded, Hayate coughed and said "Then let the Fifth match begin!" before slashing down his hand and jumping out of the way.

Temari smirked as she stared at Tenten and said "I hope you're able to put up a better fight than those two fan girls were able to."

Tenten matched her smirk as she reached into her kunai pouch and said "Oh don't worry. Unlike those two, I actually take my training seriously."

Meanwhile, back up in the balconies, Naruto was frowning as something clicked in his mind. Naruto opened his mouth to shout to Tenten before he found a hand on his shoulder.

Following the hand over to her sensei who shook his head, he said "Gai-sensei, Tenten's a long range weapon user isn't she? She needs to be warned to go close range."Gai shook his head again and said "Tenten is a very youthful student Naruto. But she needs to learn not to rely on her weapons so much. This will be that lesson."

"Are you nuts? Do you see the size of that fan Temari is using? She could kill Tenten if she lets her open it all the way." Naruto said remembering the facts that he had read about the wind mistresses of the Land of Wind that he had found in a book about the Land of Wind and its residents.

As Naruto and Gai were talking, Kankuro was watching and thought 'For a supposed rookie, he sure knows a lot. Maybe too much.'

Meanwhile down on the floor, the battle had gone from bad to worse for Tenten. She was currently up in the air trying to hit Temari with her Twin Rising Dragons attack but Temari just blew the weapons away.

"Is that the best you've got?" Temari asked.

Tenten gritted her teeth and shouted out "It's not over yet!"

Pulling on the wires attached to all the weapons that were scattered all over the floor, Tenten pulled them all into the air around her before swinging her arms towards Temari who merely smirked and said "Not bad. For a weakling!"

Opening her fan all the way, drawing Naruto's attention as he saw the three moons, she called out "Wind Style: Whirling Cyclone Jutsu!"

A huge blast of wind stronger than anything the wind mistress had used yet blasted out of her fan and blew the weapons away before continuing on to Tenten whose eyes widened before it hit her and began spinning around her.

Tenten screamed as the winds began tearing into her before dieing down after half a minute and she began falling towards Temari who was smirking as she positioned her fan to 'catch' Tenten.

However, her smirk was wiped off her face and everyone's eyes widened as a smoke cloud appeared over the fan which Tenten dropped into before it cleared revealing an Infernape standing on the fan holding the kunoichi bridal style.

Everyone except for the members of Team 7 glanced over at Sarutobi thinking that the semi flaming ape was a summons of his. However, the Hokage looked just as confused as they did until they heard Kakashi say "That enough to prove Naruto's point Gai, or should he have not made a clone and let Tenten hit that girl's fan, probably breaking her back and permanently ending her career in the process?"

Almost everyone's eyes widened as they thought 'That's a clone?'

Hayate shook his head free of his thoughts and said "Due to interference, this match's winner is Temari."

The clone meanwhile had already hopped off of Temari's fan and set Tenten down and was now tearing into the wind mistress after it had dropped its transformation.

"What the hell is your problem lady? She was beaten already, there was no reason to go and try to break her back over something like a preliminary fight that YOU won!"

Temari uncaring shrugged as she began walking away and said "Tell it to someone who cares blondie.""I care." The clone growled out before moving faster than Sasuke and Sakura had ever seen Naruto ever move untransformed and grabbed the girls fan off her back and then out of range much to her protest.

"Hey! Give that back!" Temari shouted before the clone glared at her and the whole room shivered as they suddenly felt like they were in the middle of a roaring volcano.

As most of the shinobi began wondering just how the hell they could even identify the sensation they were feeling, Naruto's clone said in a low tone of voice that somehow still matched the presence it was giving off. "Tenten fought with honor and gave it her all. To me, for you to spit on that and just walk away is unforgivable. So now, I'm going to do something that will hopefully forever be burned into your mind. Literally! Transform!"

The clone was covered in smoke before everyone suddenly felt the temperature in the room begin to drastically climb. When the smoke cleared to reveal the clone, everyone was surprised to see a four foot three creature of sorts that seemed to be on fire at its tail and two horns on its head with a flame theme on its body. There was a black collar around its neck and legs and its red arms seemed to be made out of rocks with red spikes coming out of its back.

"What the hell is that thing?" Kiba shouted.

"Magmar: the Spitfire Pokemon. This Fire type dislikes cold places, so it blows scorching flames to make their environment suitable for itself. The fiery surface of its body gives off a wavering, rippling glare that is similar to the sun."

Everyone glanced over to where the voice came from to see the original Naruto holding Dex in his hand as he looked down at his clone with a frown who now that everyone looked closely could see was actually beginning to naturally build up the glare that the strange device had talked about.

That wasn't the only thing happening though. As the temperature in the clone's body continued to naturally rise, Temari's fan that was still in its hands began to melt and parts of the paper inside began to catch on fire.

Temari's eyes widened and she shouted out "No! What are you doing?"

The clone glared at her and said "You almost took away Tenten's ability to be a shinobi. So now, I'm going to take away yours. Even if it is only temporary until you get a new fan, you can use that time to think about how your actions have consequences."

The clone stoked its inner fire even more causing everyone to feel like they really were in a volcano as the glare around it got too intense to look at directly. Temari spun around to the proctor and said "Aren't you going to stop him?"

The proctor looked at her and said "My job is only to stop matches young lady."

Temari's eyes widened before she turned to the Hokage who word said was a kind leader only to see said old man shaking his head at her. She then looked up to the original pleading with her eyes.

The original frowned and said "Why are you looking at me with those eyes like that? Weren't you going to end Tenten's career? It's not like he's going to burn you alive or anything. Just your fan. You can buy a new one can't you? Besides, I think you've begun to rely on that thing a little bit too much if your acting this way over it."

Temari's eyes began to tear up before they widened even further than before as the same voice came from behind her causing her to spin back around.

"Ability Activate: Flame Body!"

There was a fwooshing sound as the clone's entire skin was engulfed in white hot flames which reached towards the ceiling forcing everyone to block their eyes with an arm. As it did, the few embers that was in the paper of the fan turned into a full blaze and the metal began running off in streams pooling on the floor steaming.

After ten seconds of this, there was nothing left to indicate that the pool of liquid metal on the floor that was actually beginning to evaporate was ever a weapon used by the wind mistress and the clone cut off its form's ability.

As it did, Temari sunk to her knees as tears begin to fall freely from her eyes and said "M-my mother's fan. It's gone."

The clone turned away from the girl and said "That's right. Maybe now you'll learn to be more considerate of your opponents."

There was then a popping sound as the clone disappeared in a cloud of smoke. The room's temperature instantly began dropping back to closer to normal now that a living miniature volcano wasn't in the room.

Kankuro looked over at Naruto with a hard look and said "That was the only thing my sister had to remind her of her mother."

Naruto looked at Kankuro and the puppet user shivered as he was reminded of his brother because of the look in the blonde's eyes. They held a look that said "If you get in my way, I'll kill you." Kankuro knew the blond was down right pissed since from what he could tell the blond normally had a far more cheerful outlook.

"That girl just tried to cripple another, taking away her hopes and dreams forever. I did not know who that fan had belonged to before she had used it nor do I care now that I do. What my clone just did was the very least I myself would have done." Having said his peace, Naruto glanced back up to the board as everyone shivered telling themselves never to get on the blonde's bad side.

Back on the floor, Tenten glanced at the still crying Temari and then up to Naruto and frowned as she thought 'The destruction of a weapon that you have bonded with is never easy. I can't imagine how it must feel if one of my weapons was destroyed and it belonged to my mother.'

Walking over to Temari, she put a gentle hand on her shoulder. When Temari looked up at her in surprise, she gave a soft smile and said "Come by the Wolf Claw shop when this is done. I'll see what I can do to get you a new fan for the finals."

Temari looked stunned before she nodded her head and whispered "Thank you."

Tenten nodded and began walking to the balconies as Temari took another moment to collect herself and then followed.

Over with the Chunin, Sarutobi smiled and thought 'This is what I wish the exams were truly about. The building of friendship. Still, I wish it did not have to come from the actions that Naruto's clone had taken even if they were justified.'

Meanwhile, the board had gone through its next set of names uncaring of what was going on down on the arena under it and was patiently waiting for its selection to be called out.

Hayate glanced over his shoulder and said "Will Shikamaru Nara and Kin Tsuchi please come down for their matches?"

As the two made their way down, Naruto suddenly stiffened before glancing out the doors.

"What is it Naruto?" Kakashi asked recognizing the signs of a shadow clone dispelling somewhere out of sight and the original getting the memories.

Naruto glanced back at Kakashi but shook his head and said "Nothing sensei, don't worry about it.'

Looking forward, he thought 'I had told my clone to tell the other clone that was still on the top of the tower to try and track down Kabuto since that guy was rubbing me the wrong way. But I never would have expected him to have been that good. I wonder what his hurry had been though.'

Kakashi narrowed his eye slightly and thought 'What are you up to Naruto?'

Meanwhile down on the arena, Shikamaru had Kin trapped with his Shadow Possession Jutsu and the two reached into their shuriken holsters before both let one fly at each other. However before either of the two shinobi could be impaled, Shikamaru bent backward slamming Kin's head into the concrete knocking her unconscious and probably giving her a concussion to boot.

Naruto smirked as Shikamaru found the need to lecture his unconscious opponent and thought 'It's always the quiet ones you have to look out for.'

After Hayate had declared Shikamaru the winner due to knockout, the board shifted through names again and he said "Will Uzumaki Naruto and Kiba Akamaru come down now."

"Yahoo! Alright Akamaru. We got this one in the bag!" Kiba said having brushed Naruto's previous actions off as a rare thing due to his anger since he knew Naruto looked after his pack. As Kiba rushed across the balcony and down the stairs, Naruto allowed a small smile to cross his lips at the antics of one of his partners for the pranks he use to pull before taking a deep breath.

Then turning away from the railing of the balcony, he began to walk calmly towards the stairs ready for his match. As he walked, he felt the eyes of everyone on him but paid them no mind as he tapped out a question on one of his Pokeballs and gave a small smirk at the enthusiastic response he received in reply.

As Naruto walked down towards the arena floor, Kurenai looked towards Kakashi and said "I hate to say this Kakashi, but even after that show he just put on, against Kiba and his partner Akamaru, your student has no chance winning this match."

Kakashi looked over at Kurenai and shook his head as he said "Oh Kurenai, you have no idea what your student has just gotten himself into."

Once Naruto was in front of him, Kiba said "I don't know what that weird transformation of yours was Naruto, but you are going down! I'm not even going to have to have Akamaru's help on this one!"

Akamaru whined before Naruto laughed and said "I had actually hoped to try and keep that a bit of a secret from your team and the other teams that hadn't met up with my own Kiba. But I still have one secret that makes this match perfect to reveal. So I would use Akamaru if I were you, because I plan on using a partner as well." As Naruto finished speaking, he unclipped a Pokeball from his belt earning confused looks from everyone else but Team 7.

"What are you talking about?" Kiba asked earning a smirk from Naruto.

"This." Naruto said pushing the button on the ball causing it to expand earning widened eyes before throwing it up in the air in a overhand pitcher's throw and shouted out "Go Wartortle!"

The ball flew up towards the ceiling before stopping over ten feet in the air and opened up on its hinges and a red light shot out that landed in front of Naruto that formed into the blue turtle with long ears as the ball closed and shot back to Naruto's hand reverting back to its regular size on the way.

Kiba and the most of the others in the room stared at the strange creature before their attention was brought back to Naruto as he said "I can't tell you how long I've been looking forward to having a match with an Inuzuka Kiba. A chance to have a true no-holds-barred two-on-two match. This is going to be awesome. Transform!"

Naruto made the required hand sign and was covered in smoke before walking out of it looking the exact same as his partner as he stood side by side with Wartortle. The two grinned at their opponents as Naruto said "Ladies and gentlemen, llllets get ready to rummmble!"

Kiba smirked as he tossed a food pill to Akamaru and swallowed one as well and said "Took the words right out of my mouth Naruto!"

As Akamaru began turning red, Hayate quickly slashed his hand down and shouted "Fifth match between Naruto Uzumaki and Kiba Inuzuka Begin!" before he got the hell out of there.

Just in time too as Naruto and Wartortle withdrew into their shells and Rapid Spinned towards Kiba and Akamaru who had just barely been able to transform into feral looking versions of Kiba before they had to split up to avoid being taken out in the first few seconds of the match.

As Wartortle and Naruto went spinning past them, Kiba absentmindedly thought 'Looks similar to our Fang Over Fang, only on the ground and horizontal.' He and Akamaru then rushed the two turtles as they were standing up with a Ninja Art: Beast Mimicry: Down On All Fours using the added speed to get in close.

Seeing the two transformed canines coming, the two turtles began back flipping away at speeds faster than what most of the people in the room would have thought they could manage before cart wheeling away to opposite sides once they reached the walls. Kiba and Akamaru both skid to a stop barely stopping before they bashed their heads into the wall like Kin had in the previous fight before they heard one turtle give an incomprehensible cry and another shout out "Water Gun!"

Both turtles opened their mouths and shot out a stream of water which slammed into the two canines pushing them up against the walls they had just avoided. The two turtles used the time that the canines took to get up to Rapid Spin a short distance towards the other wall and regroup.

As Kiba and Akamaru shakily got up from being slammed into the wall, Naruto looked over to Wartortle and said "So any particular way you want to do this?"

Wartortle looked around the arena and hmmed before saying "Well, so long as this is all dry land, they have the advantage since they're bigger than us. So unless you want to change shapes or we can change this place to an ocean then we're just going to have to wear them out with dodging them."

Naruto glanced toward the double doors and got a thoughtful look and nudged Wartortle as a prankster smile made its way across his face as an idea began forming. Wartortle noticed where Naruto was looking and soon had the same grin on his face.

Back with Kiba and Akamaru, they were just getting ready with their own attack when they noticed the grins on the two turtles' faces.

"What are they up to?" Kiba wondered.

Akamaru gave a soft whine in confusion as well before Kiba shrugged it off and said "Well whatever it is, knowing Naruto and how he thinks, it can't be anything good. We're going to have to take things up a notch boy and get serious now. You ready for this?"

Akamaru nodded and the two rushed towards the turtles. Naruto seeing this said "Here they come Wartortle." Wartortle scoffed and said "Let them come. Soon it'll all be over."

Naruto frowned and said "Don't get cocky."

Right as he said that, Kiba threw a couple of smoke bombs right at the two turtles and the two canines started spinning at the two becoming a pair of spinning drills before tearing into the smoke cloud with cries of "Fang Over Fang!"

Up in the balconies, Kurenai smirked at Kakashi and said "It's over Kakashi. That's Kiba's finisher combination."

Kakashi merely eye smiled and said "Oh I wouldn't be so sure Kurenai. After all, one of Naruto's other partners likes to use smokescreens also so he has lots of practice fighting in them."

True to Kakashi's word, Naruto and Wartortle were currently dodging the drills thanks to the sensory input that their long ears were giving them. As they were rolling around and doing cartwheels, Wartortle shouted out "She calls this a finisher combination? Charmeleon used his Smokescreen way better than this!" Naruto just laughed as he dodged another drill by rolling backwards and pushing off of with a handstand before cart wheeling in another direction.

Finally after five minutes, the smokescreen cleared out and Kiba and Akamaru stopped their spinning returning to the ground panting staring in shock at the two turtles who were grinning at them.

Kakashi eye smiled at Kurenai who was looking down at the floor in shock and said "See?"

Kiba got an angry look on his face and said "How the hell did you guys manage to avoid us for so long?"

Naruto and Wartortle wiggled their long ears as the transformed blond said "Lots of hours of practice using these buddies while another partner of mine practiced using his own Smokescreen attack and a few other of his attacks. Now then time for our own plan."

Right after Naruto finished speaking, he and Wartortle withdrew into their shells and began Rapid Spinning. But instead of spinning towards Kiba and Akamaru, it was away towards the double doors. Kiba and everyone else looked on in confusion as they reached it and pulled it shut before Naruto turned around and said "Sorry Kiba, but this is the beginning of the end for the two of you, Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

The transformed blond crossed his fingers and over thirty turtles joined the group spread out between the combatants. The clones than all jumped in the air and withdrew in their shells as they shouted out "Hydro Pump!"

Then to everyone's shock, water began pouring out of their shells that rapidly began filling up the arena. Within ten seconds it was already past Kiba's ankles and it didn't look like it was stopping.

Desperate to stop the water, Kiba and Akamaru launched themselves towards a turtle each in a Fang Over Fang Attack but were pushed back by the force of the water from the spinning turtles that were kept in the air by their attacks.

Meanwhile as this was going on, Wartortle had frozen the two doors shut with an Ice Beam attack and he and Naruto were watching as the Chunin and the Hokage were beginning to apply the water walking exercise while Kiba and Akamaru splashed into the water.

Coming up for air in the now up to his neck water, Kiba saw the original Naruto and his partner were floating with their arms and heads above the water and he shouted "What the hell are you doing?"

Naruto shrugged and said "Changing the playing field."

By that time the water had reached to just under the balconies and Kiba and Akamaru were treading water. The clones stopped spinning as the water died down to a trickle and they all dived into the water while the original and Wartortle also dived.

Kiba getting nervous looked around before suddenly he and Akamaru felt something grab their feet and both went under the water. Everyone in the balconies watched as bubbles appeared in the water before the area around where Kiba and Akamaru was exploded.

He, He. Cliffy. I AM EVIL! BWAHAHAHA.

Well Kiba survive? Has Naruto finally lost it and committed the ultimate crime by killing Akamaru? Find out next time on To Be A Mater!

AN:11,000 words. I AM ON A ROLL BABY! Still, don't expect too many chapters like that in the future.

Full Chunin Motto as written by the Third Hokage:

If qualities of Heaven are your desire, Acquire wisdom and knowledge to take your mind higher.

If Earthly qualities are what you lack, Train your body in the fields and prepare to attack.

When both Heaven and Earth are opened together, The path of peril will revert to the righteous path forever.

This 'person' is the secret way that guides us on from this place today.


	15. Prelims Part 2

15. Prelims Part Two/Naruto's Confession

Author's Notes: I'm Back!

Naruto: "Shadow Razor Leaf Barrage!"

Tactition101 "Aggh!" Quickly dodges a barrage of a hundred razor leaves heading my way. "What the hell was that for Naruto?"

Naruto: That was for leaving me underwater for a month!"

Tactition101: "Yeah, well if you kill me now then no one will know what happens next."

Naruto: "Your point?"

Tactition101: "My point is that you should be a little more patient. Besides, I'm going to make it up to everyone since I had been off and on on this for a month before my computer had to be taken to the shop for a week."

Naruto: "Oh yeah, and how do you plan on doing that?"

Tactition101: "Well, this chapter is longer than usual and also there's the fact that there are the previews to two future chapters at the end."

Naruto: "Fine, but don't think that this is over!"

Story Start

The water was just barely reaching the balconies and Kiba and a transformed Akamaru were treading water as the shadow clones Naruto created stopped spinning and dove under water shortly followed by the original and his partner.

Kiba and Akamaru looked around nervously before both felt something grab both of their feet and they were suddenly dragged under.

Kiba looked down and saw two of the turtles had his feet as they kicked downwards towards the floor and a glance towards Akamaru showed that the transformed canine was in the same position. But before he could try and knock the clones off another two clones grabbed his arms as they reached the room's floor and kept Kiba from moving as two more clones did the same with Akamaru.

As the two struggled to break free, Kiba saw another turtle come swimming towards them from where the door was at speeds that Kiba wouldn't have believed if he hadn't seen it with his own eyes. The turtle first swam over to him and opened his mouth and shouted out something into the water before a cold blue lighting bolt shot out and incased his feet in a sheet of ice that while not thick by any means, was certainly not thin enough for Kiba to break free before he ran out of air.

Kiba's eyes widened as he realized that Naruto planned on drowning him and Akamaru and the two began struggling even harder than before as the new turtle repeated the same process with the transformed canine before it hightailed out of there. Once the two canines were secured, the other turtles let go and began swimming closer to the surface and Kiba watched them go as he continued to struggle before they did something that made his eyes widen even more.

Once the clones were in a ring over his position near the surface of the water, all thirty two clones suddenly glowed blue for an instant before they exploded.

Up in the balconies, everyone was soaked as the water splashed out at them. However, getting wet was the least of everyone's worries as they had to deal with the pressure to their ears that the explosions in an enclosed space put on them.

Admittedly though, the people watching the fight weren't all that worried about being wet or slightly ringing ears right now.

"Kiba!" Hinata yelled as waves rushed away from where the explosions were. The girl was leaning against the railing and it was only her sensei holding her back that prevented her from diving down into the water to try and find her teammate. So upset over the apparent fate of her friend, she forgot to activate her Byakugan.

Said sensei meanwhile was looking into the water with a bit lip hoping for the best and praying that the troubled water wasn't about to turn red.

Kiba and Akamaru meanwhile were dealing with their own problems. The concussive force from the blast had transferred even more in the water than through the air and had thoroughly dazed them and Kiba was sure that he and Akamaru had some damage to their inner ears.

However, before the two could recover, a long tail that was red and segmented that ended in a long white fin that was shaped like a wide W suddenly came out of the shadows of the water around them and slammed into the two breaking the shells of ice keeping them on the floor causing the two to gasp out in pain losing precious O2 in the process. The two were pushed hard through the water for a good five feet before they could stop themselves.

But just as they were going to make a break for the surface of the water, the tail came back around and slammed into them a second time in an upward arc sending the two rushing towards the surface of the water.

Everyone on the balconies were holding their breath as the waited to find out what was going on underwater when suddenly two bodies burst out into the air before their momentum ran out revealing them to be Kiba and a now untransformed Akamaru before gravity reclaimed them and the two slammed back into the water.

As Kiba and Akamaru both tried to catch their breath while treading water, a twenty one foot long shadow was moving under the water's surface towards them causing Kiba's eyes to widen as he saw it before he was showered with more water as the figure burst to the surface.

Everyone's eyes widened as they saw Wartortle on top of the head of a twenty one foot long sea snake that had a segmented red body with a yellow underside. A row of four large fins ran down the large Atrocious Pokemon's back leading towards a wide tail that was in the shape of a w with a piece of bone going through the middle lending it more strength than a usual v tail. Eastern dragon style whiskers hung from the sides of the face which had three horns that were connected on it's forehead and two fins behind its mouth.

Kiba paled as he saw what Naruto had turned into and in the silence that had spread through the rest of the people in the room everyone heard him say "Oh shit."

Naruto grinned and said "I hope your ready for round two Kiba. But first, allow me to introduce you to Gyarados, a Water Flying hybrid that was said to demolish everything in its rage."

Kiba visibly gulped and Wartortle smirked as his extremely sensitive ears picked up his nin-dog partner doing the same. Looking down at his trainer, he said something that only the blond understood causing Naruto to nod before Wartortle jumped off his head and dove back into the water.

As the turtle Pokemon slipped into the water, Kiba began to feel nervous again. He and Akamaru were unable to think too much on what his opponent's partner was going to do when a stream of water erupted from beneath his own partner and sent the dog back at an upward angle earning a surprised yelp from the pup before the nin-dog landed back in the water near the giant statue. Akamaru came up sputtering before he turned and tried to make it to the considerably shallower waters that was over the statue when another stream of water shot out from the direction he was heading sending the pup flying again.

Kiba was worried for his partner at first but soon had to worry about himself more for the moment as Naruto said "I'd stay focused if I were you Kiba. Flamethrower!"

The transformed blond reared his head back before letting loose a stream of fire towards Kiba. As one of the few Fire type TM moves the predominately Water type could use rushed towards him, Kiba's eyes widened before he quickly dove beneath the surface of the water to avoid the stream of fire that actually evaporated the water in the small area that it hit.

Up in the balconies, everyone was muttering to themselves talking about Kiba's chances now that his partner was indisposed and Kiba himself had to deal with something so big and that could apparently breath fire like a dragon.

Naruto meanwhile was looking around trying to guess where Kiba would pop back up. While he could obviously go after the Inuzuka by diving underwater himself, he was curious to see what Kiba came up with to combat his second transformation.

His answer came as a drill shot out of the water from behind him and headed straight towards the portion of his back that was raised out of the water. Naruto's head snapped in that direction as he heard the explosion of water being flung everywhere by the attack before he saw the drill coming towards him and quickly moved his body out of the way in a serpent like motion before following the drill's progress as Kiba came around for another try.

Naruto took a quick second to confirm that Kiba was heading straight towards his head before he reared his head back slightly in preparation to launch his own attack. Many in the balcony became worried that Naruto was about to flame broil his opponent when Naruto's head shot back forward and he shouted out "Water Gun!"

A stream of water shot out of Naruto's mouth with the power of a fire hose and slammed into Kiba's Fang Over Fang attack. Water began hurling into the balconies as Naruto kept his attack going against the force that was Kiba's attack. Kiba in turn tried to increase his rotation in order to not be pushed back but in the end his attack's momentum was stopped by the stream of water until he was finally forced backwards into the wall in the back of the room. Naruto kept the Water Gun up for a moment after Kiba hit the far wall before letting it die down and watched as Kiba dropped down into the shallow waters that was over the statue panting for breath.

A yipping sound gathered everyone's attention from Kiba and Naruto's fight as the dog was shot up in the air once again by a Water Gun of Wartortle's own before said turtle launched itself after the battered pup and Skull Bashed the ninja dog across the room. Akamaru landed in the water next to his master and tried to pick himself up but only managed to stand for a few moments before slumping back down.

"Akamaru!" Kiba shouted as he picked up the trembling dog who whined in his master's arms. "Are you okay pal?"

Akamaru lifted his head and gave another whine before closing his eyes unable to keep them open after being thrown all over the place by fire hydrant force Water type attacks and being Skull Bashed, even lightly back to his master's side. Wartortle meanwhile had returned to Naruto's side and was currently waiting for orders from his own trainer.

Naruto glanced down at his partner and gave a brief nod telling the turtle he did good before turning his focus back to Kiba so that he could be ready for whatever Kiba did next.

However, Kiba seemed to come to the conclusion that his chances of winning this match were too low without his partner's help and decided to take the tactically sounder route of forfeiting.

Raising one of his hands while making sure to keep Akamaru supported in his other arm, Kiba said "Proctor, I forfeit. My partner is too injured to continue and I doubt I can handle a two on one by myself considering what has happened so far.

Hayate nodded from where he and the other non combatants had moved to the end of the two balconies and called out "Winner: Naruto Uzumaki." Turning to Naruto he coughed before saying "Would you please return the room to as close to its previous condition as possible for the next match?"

Naruto nodded before diving underwater followed by Wartortle before everyone felt the room shudder near the double doors as they were forced open by the two allowing the water to drain out of the room until there were only large puddles in the room. As it finished draining it revealed an untransformed Naruto apologizing to the medics on the other side for getting them wet before walking up the stairs back to his team after recalling Wartortle to his Pokeball. As he climbed up the stairs Naruto shook his head and body out like a wet dog sending drops of water all over the place before running his hands through his hair until it was back to its original spiky condition.

Kiba watched him before running one of his hands through his own hair squeezing out the water as best he could before looking down at his partner and said "Well, we tried buddy." Akamaru gave a small whine as his master began walking to the stairs where the medics did a quick scan on the two before saying that they were fit enough to watch the last few matches but to have his sister give Akamaru a check up just in case.

While this was going on, the board had begun going through the six names that were left and had made its next choice. As the board displayed its selection, Naruto heard Hinata gasp and he turned his head to see her suddenly stiff body as she stared at the names displayed. Naruto turned his head up to the board and found his own body unconsciously stiffening as he realized just what exactly had the young heiress so tense. Neji meanwhile had a self-satisfied smirk as he thought 'Fate is truly on my side.'

Hayate glanced back to the board before coughing and said "Well Hinata Hyuga and Neji Hyuga please come down."

The two Hyugas made their way down. One had a smug look on his face while the other seemed like she was walking to the gallows. As she passed him, Naruto sent a small smile her way and said "Good luck Hinata."

Hinata blushed something fierce at the object of her affections wishing her luck but managed to keep her composure as she nodded and walked down the stairs. Neji meanwhile was scowling as he watched his cousin walk over and take her position in front of him.

Once the two fighters were in position, Hayate said "Hinata Hyuga vs Neji Hyuga. Begin!"

As Hayate jumped away Neji's scowl turned into a stern frown as he said "Before we begin, there's something I have to point out Lady Hinata. You're not cut out to be a shinobi. Withdraw from the match!"

Hinata's eyes widened as she stuttered "W-what?"

Neji's own eyes narrowed as he said "You're all sweetness and light, a peacemaker, not a trouble maker. You're easily led, not a leader."

Hinata's eyes shifted downwards as Neji began laying into her verbally. Up in the balconies, Naruto frowned as he noticed Hinata's form slump a little lower than usual and thought 'Looks like that scar-face guy has an apprentice.'

On the floor, Neji was continuing his speech. "Also, you have no self-confidence. You've got a world class inferiority complex. So I know you'd have been more comfortable and content staying at the Genin level. But applicants for the higher level Chunin selection exam must compete as a trio, and you couldn't bear to let your teammates down. The truth is, your participation has been reluctant from the start, hasn't it?"

Hinata shook her head violently a few times in denial as she said "N-no, you're wrong. I… I really wanted to change that about myself. So, of my own volition, I.."

'Hinata.' Naruto thought frowning as he witnessed Hinata's form shaking the slightest bit and remembered how Hinata was always doing her best in the academy even with her self-confidence issues. 'Don't let this guy talk you down. I know that there is strength in you somewhere. I've seen it.'

"Lady Hinata… You're the sheltered little baby of the main branch aren't you?" Neji asked.

Hinata's body jerked as she asked "W-what?"

Neji's eyes narrowed even further as he said "A leopard doesn't change its spots. A failure always fails. And a weak personality won't become strong."

'Okay, now he's beginning to go too far.' Naruto thought with narrowed eyes as Neji continued to break the girl's will to fight. If there was one thing Naruto hated, it was people looking down on him telling him that he could never accomplish anything. Watching Neji do the same to Hinata in front of him was really steaming him.

"It's precisely because of the unchanging nature of humankind that differences between people are born." Neji said still unaware of the thoughts Naruto was currently having as he continued to seemingly stare right through Hinata's soul. "It's why we've coined terms like "Elite" and "Failure." It doesn't matter who you are. We're all judged on the basis of our looks, our intelligence, our talent, or our personalities…Just as we judge others in their turn. Yes it's a form of discrimination. And the factors that it's based on don't change. We have no choice, we must live with the boundaries set for us by the judgments of others. It's as unchangeable as the fact that I'm of the cadet branch of the family, and you're a member of the main branch."

Naruto's fist was turning white as he gripped the railing struggling not to go down there and shut Neji's mouth physically.

"I've seen through many things with this all-seeing Byakugan eye. And so I know, this courage you're displaying is just a bluff! In the truest, deepest part of your heart, you're desperate to run away from here right now."

"N-no, I really want to…" Hinata started to say before Neji growled and everyone saw the veins around his eyes bulge causing Hinata to blink and bring her hands up so that one of fingers was covering her mouth.

"My eyes can't be deceived." Neji said in a tone colder than anything he used before. "Just now, to escape my stare, you averted your own eyes. Glancing towards the upper left. It signaled your recall of a past experience, one that brought you pain. When you subsequently glanced to the lower right, it indicated that you were envisioning physical and mental agony. In other words, you recalled your own previous experiences, and based upon those memories, you imagined the outcome of this match, You foresaw, your own defeat!

"Even now, as you bring your arms up in front of your body as if to shield your self, your body is signaling your desire to raise a wall between us, to create some distance from me. You implore me to come no further, to peer no more deeply into the innermost secrets of your heart. Because everything I have said so far has been right on target!"

'Okay, this guy really needs to shut up now!' Naruto thought as he growled before everyone suddenly felt a massive pressure crushing on their shoulders like they were at the bottom of the ocean. Everyone except for Hinata, who instead was feeling like the ocean currents were swirling around her in a protective manner.

Everyone's eyes were drawn to Naruto as he said in a dangerous tone "You need to learn to shut your mouth Neji."

Neji transferred his glare from his cousin to the annoying blond and said "A failure such as yourself has no right telling me what I can and cannot say Uzumaki. After all, a dead last such as yourself is just as destined to fail as the dear Lady Hinata here."

Naruto's eyes narrowed before the sense of a crushing ocean turned into the fiercest blizzard of all time causing everyone to shudder. Neji remained unmoving as Naruto said "A failure huh? Well I'd rather be called a failure, which has the chance to improve then be a so called "Genius" that can't see past his pride to know when he's actually nothing but a fool. It's true that Hinata may not be the strongest out there when it comes to fighting, but she's also one of the few people besides my partners that I would actually trust to have my back in a tough situation. And that's because I know that deep down inside, there is a flame that burns brighter than even a Magmar's Flame Body. She just has to find it."

Hinata had flinched when Naruto said she wasn't the strongest but had gasped when Naruto declared that he would trust her enough to watch his back. After he said she had such a strong flame, Hinata's shoulders automatically squared and she stood a little taller as she thought 'Naruto, do you really think-?'

Neji growled and said "Pretty words from a failure. But you cannot change your fate. Neither you or Lady Hinata are fated to succeed in life. It is your fate to instead fail!"

Before Naruto could say anything like pointing out that he and his partner won their fight, everyone's attention was drawn to Hinata as she said in an even tone "Neji!"

Neji looked back down to his cousin to see her in the Gentle Fist starting stance with her Byakugan active and a determined look on her face.

"It's time I showed you and everyone else my worth." Hinata said in a confident voice that was nothing like the one she was using just moments before.

"Fine. But know that what happens next is your own fault." Neji scowled and spat out.

And then by some unspoken signal the two Hyugas rushed each other and began laying into each other using the Gentle Fist style. Palms and finger tips rushed to their opponents as the other person deflected and countered. As the attacks continued, everyone saw the chakra that was being pushed out of their hands in small explosions of blue.

As the two Hyugas bombarded each other with palm strikes on the floor, up on the balcony Sakura looked over at her sensei and said "Kakashi-sensei, what kind of fighting style is that? It's not like anything I've seen before."

Naruto frowned and before Kakashi could answer said "Weren't you paying attention in class when they went over the different clans' preferred fighting methods Sakura?"

Sakura's head snapped over to Naruto and she asked "What are you talking about Naruto?" Then her eyes narrowed in anger as she said "And what do you mean wasn't I paying attention? You weren't even in class half the time. And the other half you never paid attention yourself!"

Naruto shifted his head a little to look at his teammate from the corner of his eye and rose an eyebrow before snorting and muttered something about not needing to be in the actual classroom to hear a lecture.

Kakashi rose an eyebrow at his two students' interaction before shaking his head and said "They're using the Gentle Fist of the Hyuga clan Sakura."

"Gentle Fist?" Sasuke asked intrigued by the style the two Hyugas were using. Naruto spared a quick glance over at Sasuke and saw that his Sharingan was once again active. Snorting to himself, Naruto shook his head and thought 'I don't know why I even bothered.'

Kakashi studiously ignored the snort that came from his blond student after he looked at Sasuke and said "The Hyugas use a special type of Taijutsu style that only they use. Instead of attacking the outer body like almost every other Taijutsu style does, they attack the insides of the person's body by pushing their chakra into their hands and into the other person's body. This is an extremely effective style, although it does have the weakness of needing to be up close and personal."

"My eternal rival's right." Gai said from where he and Lee were standing next to them. Kakashi seemed a little surprised at the serious tone in the other man's voice but shrugged it off as the man continued. "The Gentle Fist style is one of the most devastating styles out there since it attacks the Keirakukei, or chakra pathways and inner organs of the body. After all, no matter what you do, you cannot strengthen your inner organs."

"But Gai-sensei, how can they see the chakra pathways? They're just energy lines right?"

Gai nodded and said "True, but the Hyugas are able to see these lines with their Byakugan. Also, they study the human's anatomy at a young age so that they know exactly where to hit."

"All it takes is one hit. Come on Hinata." Naruto murmured to himself catching everyone's attention as his own was now fully on the two fighting Hyugas.

Down on the floor, Hinata never felt so confident.

'I'm actually holding my own. I can do this.' Hinata thought as she jerked her head back to avoid her cousin's palm strike and retaliated by launching a palm strike towards Neji's shoulder. Neji swatted the hand away before moving in to strike her chest and shoulder just as she launched a strike to his chest of her own.

"Did she get him?" Sakura asked as everyone watched in anticipation to see who came out the winner of the short but fierce fight.

Her answer came when Hinata's eyes widened and she coughed out blood. Naruto narrowed his eyes in worry and said "Why is it only Hinata who's hurt?"

"Why indeed." Kakashi said as Hinata narrowed her eyes and swung her other hand at Neji before he grabbed it and poked a spot near her elbow.

'D-don't tell me.' Kurenai thought in shock while Kakashi's eye narrowed as he said "Hm, I see. It appears that all that talk of him being the greatest fighter in the Hyuga clan history weren't just blowing smoke."

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked but didn't get an answer right away as Neji grabbed the sleeve of Hinata's jacket and pulled it back revealing dark spots all over the arm.

Hinata's eyes widened in shock as she coughed some more blood before saying "It can't be! You mean from the very beginning?"

"Precisely, my eyes can detect the Tenketsu!" Neji said in an arrogant voice.

Naruto's eyes widened as he whispered "No way." Sakura and Sasuke though looked confused as did the rest of the rookie Genin who were watching the fight. Turning to her teacher, Sakura said "Kakashi-sensei, what are they talking about?"

Kakashi's eye narrowed further as he said "Along the Keirakukei that we spoke of earlier, there are 361 chakra points, no larger than the prick of a pin. These nodes are called Tenketsu… And, in theory, if you can accurately hit them, you can halt the flow of an enemy's chakra, or enhance it, controlling it in any way you wish. But while we're on the topic, let me add, these Tenketsu, they're undetectable even to my Sharingan eye."

Sakura and Sasuke's eyes widened even as Naruto clenched the railing even tighter than before and said "That's why seeing them is such a big deal. Even having the 'all penetrating eyes' of the Byakugan, for that guy to be able to even see them, never mind concentrate enough during a battle to strike them, his eyes must be on a whole level above almost every other Hyuga out there."

"Naruto?" Sakura asked but had her attention swiftly brought to the floor as everyone heard Hinata scream in pain as Neji thrust a palm without chakra into it right in the same spot as before further damaging the area her heart was in sending the girl flying until she skid to a halt ten feet away sending water flying from the large puddle the two were fighting in..

"Hinata!" Naruto shouted in concern and forced his body not to jump over the rail and run to the clan heir's side.

Neji smirked at Hinata's downed form and said "Lady Hinata, this is the unalterable difference in strength, the distinction that separates the elite from the failure. This is the unchangeable reality. From the moment you said you wouldn't run, your defeat was inevitable. The only possible outcome was your present despair. Withdraw."

"I…n…never go back… on my word." Hinata said slowly as she painfully got to her feet dripping water from the front of her body and turned around.

Neji's eyes narrowed while Naruto frowned in worry at how hard Hinata was fighting to stay on her feet.

"Because that's….my shinobi way too." Hinata finished panting from her position of half kneeling with her hands on her knees. Hinata turned her head upwards and locked eyes with Naruto whose own eyes were shining with both concern and support.

Neji growled and said "'I never go back on my word'? What a foolish thing to have for a Shinobi's way. This world is full of lies and deceit. This is just one more thing that proves you should not be a shinobi."

Hinata panted a little bit more before she opened her mouth to reply before a throbbing pain shot through her body and she curled in a little on herself in pain.

'She's not going to be able to take much more of this. One more hit and she could be in some serious trouble.' Naruto thought.

Neji shifted back into the Gentle Fist as Kakashi said "Neji's strikes on her Tenketsu node points have completely arrested the flow of Hinata's chakra. She lost the capacity to perform the Gentle Fist attacks that flood her chakra into her opponent's body. This fight is as good as done if she doesn't come up with something else quick ." 'But I doubt that in a close combat fight against a fighter like this Neji, even Sasuke could win. Naruto might have a chance, but that's only because he actually has two chakras. But as far as I know, he hasn't tapped into the Kyubi's power yet so even he would have some serious trouble.'

"Those eyes are so creepy." Ino said as she flinched at Neji's glare.

"Hinata won't get killed will she?" Chouji asked in concern.

Naruto's eyes briefly glance over to the two and he thought 'She better not.' He then turned his attention slightly to his female teammate as she said "His level of strength… This isn't a fair fight, he's too strong."

Sasuke grunted and said "This is the difference between geniuses and those who are weak."

Naruto scowled at his teammate before he took a deep breath to calm himself. The next instant everyone suddenly felt the gentle warmth of a fire surrounding them that was completely different from the sensation of a volcano from before.

Hinata seemed to gain strength from the special brand of intent that Naruto was quickly becoming so adept at using and looked back at Naruto in gratitude. Neji meanwhile frowned and thought 'The look of strength is back in her eyes.' He was snapped from his thoughts as he saw Hinata rush towards him with a hand raised in preparation of a strike. 'Fool.'

Hinata was on him in seconds launching palm strikes which Neji swiftly deflected before sending more of his own. The two traded blows for about a minute before Neji suddenly slapped Hinata's right arm away from him and hit the same spot he had before sending Hinata back to the floor even farther from her cousin then the first strike.

"Hinata!" Naruto yelled and prepared to jump over to the railing toward the heir unable to just stand and watch anymore. Clipped to his belt, all three of his Pokeballs vibrated in concern for the girl. But as Naruto moved to go over the railing, he found a hand on his shoulder stopping him. Following the hand, he saw Kakashi looking down to the arena in a strange way.

"She's not out of this just yet." The cyclops said and Naruto looked back down and noticed that Hinata's hands were moving to push herself back up out of the puddle.

"Proctor, call the match. She's not getting back up." Neji said turning to walk away.

"I wouldn't do that just yet Gekko." Kakashi called down drawing the proctor's attention who looked up at his comrade and then followed Kakashi's arm which was pointed towards Hinata who was once again on her feet with water dripping from her coat.

Neji frowned as he turned back to face her and said "What are you doing? If you keep this up, you're going to die. Just accept your fate and give up."

Hinata shook her head and said "No, I won't give up. Because it's really you who's denying your fate Neji."

Neji's frown turned into a scowl as he said "What are you talking about Lady Hinata?"

Hinata somehow managed to smile a little as she said "You say that we are all bound by fate but out of all of us here, you are fighting against it the hardest."

Neji growled and shifted into a stance causing most of the Jounin as well as his teammates to stiffen as they realized the boy's intentions. Neji began running towards Hinata arm raised to send one last strike to end his cousin's life. But before he could get halfway to her, he found the Proctor, his sensei, and two of the rookie 9's Jounin senseis in various positions around him stopping him.

Scowling at the Jounin who hadn't let go, Neji said "I see that the Main Branch is getting special treatment once again."

"Hardly, look again." Kakashi said lazily.

Neji frowned and looked over to where Kakashi had glanced towards Hinata and his eyes momentarily widened at the sight of a white horse with a flaming mane and tail standing between a bewildered Hinata and them which had its head lowered ready to gut him with the very long and very painful looking horn on its head.

The horse was glaring at him as Kakashi continued "That's a Rapidash. If what I remember from what Naruto told me about them is true, they're extremely fast, able to run at speeds that reach a hundred and fifty miles per hour in just ten steps. I imagine that horn is nothing to scoff at either."

The Rapidash glared at Neji again before it was covered with smoke revealing Naruto as he turned to Hinata and said "You alright Hinata?"

Hinata began to nod before a throb of pain shot through her and she collapsed coughing up blood turning the puddle they were all in into a darker shade of red than it was before.

Naruto was by her side in an instant, as was Kurenai who rolled the girl over and laid her head down on Hinata's chest listening to her heart beat. Apparently what she heard wasn't good because she instantly snapped her head up and shouted "Medics! Get over here quick, she's going into ventricular fibrillation!"

Said medics who were already on their way, practically flew over as they rushed to verify Kurenai's statement. Naruto meanwhile looked back over his shoulder at Neji and sent a focused blast of intent at the boy making him stiffen slightly as he felt like a dragon was staring down at him.

Naruto's attention was brought back forward as one of the medics said "At this rate, she won't last ten minutes! we've got to get her to the emergency room right now!"

Naruto glanced back at Kakashi who had walked over and the cyclops nodded. Turning to the medics who were beginning to put Hinata on a stretcher, he said "Let my student get you there quicker. He has a way to teleport to places he's seen before and can get you to the Hospital in a blink of an eye."

The medics glanced at each other before giving Naruto a quick once over before deciding to just go with it and nodded. Naruto meanwhile had already created three clones and told one to stay behind while he and the other two quickly transformed into Alakazams and grabbed the medics and Hinata and Teleported out of the area in a flash of blue.

Scene Change: Hidden Leaf Hospital Reception Area

Everyone in the hospital were suddenly brought out of what they were doing as a flash of blue appeared in front of the reception desk dying down as soon as it appeared revealing the three medics and their charge as well as the weird fox like creatures who were then covered in smoke as two disappeared and another revealed a blond Genin of the village's ninja forces.

The three medics spared a quick second of orienting themselves and realizing that yes, they were in fact in the village's hospital instead of the tower inside the Forest of Death before their medically oriented minds snapped back into place and they rushed off to the emergency room.

Naruto watched them go and thought 'Please be alright Hinata. I honestly don't know what I'd do if I lost a friend like you.' Turning to the receptionist, he said "Excuse me, do you know where emergency room patients go after they are healed?"

The receptionist shook her head from seeing a group of medics and their charge (who if she was right appeared to be the Hyuga heiress) apparently appear out of no where with the help of the local Jinchuriki and said "That would be the ICU area. You can ask the head nurse there where to go once the patient is finished with their operation."

Naruto thanked the nurse and left before the receptionist could revert to 'Anti Naruto' mode and took off to the ICU using the map in the reception area to find it. Once there, he explained what happened to the head nurse and asked if he could be informed when Hinata was brought out of surgery and if he could see her afterwards. The nurse was at first a bit resistant stating that patients who just exited surgery would need their rest but gave in when Naruto said that he was just worried and would take care not to wake the girl if she was asleep. This seemed to nullify the nurse who promised Naruto that she would inform him which room to go to as soon as Hinata was finished being operated on.

As Naruto bowed and thanked the nurse before heading to the nearby lounge, the nurse thought 'Seems we were wrong about that boy. No way would a demon be even remotely as concerned about a friend as he was.'

Scene Change: Forest Of Death Tower

Naruto's clone seemed to have taken over the original's job of glaring at Neji as its creator left in a flash of blue. Keeping up the intent that the original had leaked out it said in a dangerous voice "You better hope she lives Neji. Otherwise boss will probably kill you."

Neji stiffened a little as the clone sent out a bigger spike of intent as it finished speaking before scoffing and said "As if a failure such as him could ever defeat a genius like me." As Neji turned and began to walk away, the clone said under his breath "Boss is so going to enjoy knocking you on your ass if he fights you in the finals."

Naruto's clone watched Neji walk up the stairs as Hayate finished pronouncing Neji the winner. He was brought from his dark musings of what righteous punishment his boss would give the boy-with-a-stick-up-his-ass if he faced him when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

Torn from his thoughts of the original swinging his arm around sending Neji flying with Psychic abilities while transformed as a Mewtwo, the clone looked up to see Kakashi eye smiling at him as the cyclops said "Why don't we head back up Naruto. It looks like the next match has already been decided and we wouldn't want to be in the way now would we?"

The clone shot a quick look over his other shoulder and saw the board had indeed made its next selection and nodded before putting chakra into its legs and took off with a running start towards the balcony and jumped up to the railing's level and used a hand to flip over horizontally in a classic freestyle running manner.

Hayate meanwhile called down the next combatants for their match resulting in Lee proclaiming that it was time to show his flames of youth and Gaara to sand shunshine down to the arena floor sparing a look of utter contempt at all of the large puddles of water that barely left any dry spots on the floor.

CNaruto rose an eyebrow as he caught the quick look that the Sand nin had sent around him and said "He doesn't seem very happy about the fighting conditions does he?"

"Hm, well considering it appears he uses sand to some degree, I can't really blame him." Kakashi said as he studied the red head causing CNaruto to nod in agreement.

Down on the floor, Lee gave the nice guy pose and CNaruto and the others could hear a pinging sound coming from him as he said "Yosh! I'm glad to be able to fight you so soon Gaara-san!"

Gaara gave a noncommittal grunt in reply before the cork on his gourd suddenly shot out at the green clad warrior at speeds most of the Genin couldn't keep up with. Lee however caught the cork in his hand and smirked before letting it drop into the water under his feet.

"Eager to start as well I see. However, there's no need to get antsy. The match shall start soon enough."

Hayate had a smirk of his own as he raised his hand and said "Ninth Match: Begin!"

Gaara and Lee stared at each other for a moment before Lee launched himself at Gaara spinning around to add momentum to his kick as he shouted out "Leaf Spinning Wind!" As Lee's foot came closer to shattering his right shoulder, Gaara narrowed his eyes and sand flew out of his gourd and intercepted the kick causing Lee's eyes to widen before the sand flicked Lee away like so much lint on a dinner jacket.

As Lee was sent rolling away, most of the observers in the balconies noticed that Gaara had kept the sand a good foot above the water. They were all brought out of their observations as Lee rushed back into the fight in a zigzag pattern avoiding the sand that Gaara sent to intercept him and sent a fist at what looked like terminal velocity straight towards where Gaara's right seventh and eighth ribs were but was stopped a foot away by another wall of sand. Undeterred, Lee slammed one of his stronger legs into the defense before backing off to figure out what to do next.

'He hasn't even moved an inch.' Lee thought panting slightly due to having pushed his body as fast as possible from the start once he first encountered his opponent's defense.

"Lee's speed is amazing, but it's not doing anything." Sakura said worried.

"He's going to have to kick things up a notch if he wants to get through that sand." CNaruto said as he cocked his head in thought. "His best bet is going to be going in low since Gaara obviously doesn't want to get his sand wet if he can help it."

By their side Kankuro gave a light chuckle drawing everyone's attention as he said "His best bet is to forfeit. No one has gotten through Gaara's defense. Because regardless of whether Gaara wills it or not, the sand will always protect him. That's why no one's ever been able to even scratch him."

CNaruto frowned before his eyes tracked back down as Lee tried to punch through the wall in a manner of testing it's density. CNaruto's eyes then shifted to the various puddles that were surrounding the two fighters and his brain began going into overdrive as he began going through variables.

"Why is Lee only using Taijutsu? He should get some distance and fight with Ninjutsu, or even Genjutsu." Sakura said in worry.

"It's not that Lee won't use Ninjutsu." Gai said drawing the other's attention, even CNaruto and Sasuke's as they both cocked their heads to listen. "It's that he can't use either Ninjutsu or Genjutsu." Gai continued earning wide eyes from most of the others who hadn't known about that fact.

"What? Then how has he gotten so far?" Sakura asked in shock.

"Blood, sweat, and tears." Kakashi said.

"I can believe that." CNaruto muttered.

Gai spared both a quick glance before saying "When I first met Lee, he really had nothing. So, I molded him into a shinobi who would be the absolute best at Taijutsu."

Back on the floor, Lee was forced to stop testing the sand shield's strength as another stream of sand came around the first group of grains and tried to crush Lee in a flanking maneuver causing Lee to begin cart wheeling and then back flipping away in an effort to outrun the now two streams of sand which seemed intent on crushing the boy in between them.

CNaruto was impressed that Lee could actually keep his footing while he flipped through the puddles before his thoughts all suddenly snapped into place and he shouted out "Lee! You need to get him wet! Make some waves!"

By that point, Lee was already at the statue and he jumped up to the top causing the two sand streams to head back to their master as Lee looked at the blond in confusion. Gai however was smiling as he shouted "Excellent idea my youthful friend! LEE TAKE THEM OFF!"

"Eh? But Gai-sensei! You said to only do that when I have to protect many precious people." Lee said even as he saluted his teacher.

Gai smiled and gave his student the thumbs up as he said "It's alright, I'll allow it!"

Lee's eye lit up as he shifted from his crouch into a sitting position and pulled off his leg warmers revealing weights with "Guts," "Grits," and "Spirit" written on each bar.

"Weights?" Sakura asked as she saw the bands that had formerly been around the green-clad Genin's legs.

"Yup." Naruto said remembering the fight he had just before this whole thing started.

"Oh Gai, what an old training method." Kakashi said sighing.

Gai merely smirked as he watched his student finish taking the weights off.

"Yosh! Now I can move much easier!" Lee said standing up and letting go of the weights that he had picked up after putting his leg warmers back on.

"Pft, what difference is a few pounds going to make?" Kankuro asked as the weights fell before they landed causing the arena to shudder as two smoke clouds rose up to the ceiling. Naruto smirked at Kankuro's gob smacked face and said "Just a few pounds?"

"Isn't that a bit much Gai?" Kakashi asked his 'eternal rival' from under the hand that was keeping his head from dropping.

Gai allowed himself to chuckle before he rose his hand with two fingers up then thrust it outward shouting "Lee! EXPLODE!"

"Yes!" Lee shouted before seeming to vanish off the finger tip of the statue. Lee reappeared behind Gaara in a crouch showing that he had jumped down as Gaara actually moved his eye towards him in shock before his sand suddenly stopped a fist right next to his ear. As Lee yanked his hand out of the sand that tried to crush his wrist, he noticed that the puddle he was in had rippled from his movements so much that small waves had actually formed.

'So that's what Naruto meant.' Lee thought before he vanished again and slammed his foot against the sand that appeared just over an inch from allowing Lee's kick to connecting with the back of Gaara's head. As the sand actually gave in a little and pushed Gaara's head downwards, Lee suddenly took a wild shot and dropped down to the floor in a sweep kick catching Gaara unaware as the Sand shield tried to keep up getting wet in the process and becoming even slower than before.

So instead of Gaara's foot only being moved a few inches at best, it was instead completely swept off the floor sending Gaara tumbling before a cloud of sand caught him before he hit the ground. Didn't really help him much though as Lee was already coming out of his sweep kick and swinging in for an ax kick to send Gaara fully into the puddle they were in.

Lee's kick actually connected to everyone on the Sand team's shock and CNaruto swore he heard an "Oof!" from Gaara as he was slammed down into the water sending it flying.

"Did he get him?" Sakura asked as Lee jumped clear in case there was to be a retaliatory strike and everyone's eyes widened at the sight of what appeared to be cracks in his skin. There were even chunks falling off of his body showing that it was actually sand that had taken damage.

"No, but I'll admit he did some serious damage to Gaara's sand armor." Kankuro said.

"Damn, this guy is obsessed with defense." Naruto muttered.

Gaara suddenly coughed from his laying down position and everyone saw a small bit of red land on his chest. Kankuro and Temari's eyes widened as Kankuro let out a shocked "No way."

"The hit was so strong it actually did some form of damage to his organs even with the armor." Kakashi muttered to himself.

"Would that be enough?" Sakura asked and everyone could hear the hope in her voice.

"Nope." CNaruto and Sasuke said simultaneously as a massive wave of sand surrounded Gaara before launching itself at Lee who frantically backpedaled before reverting back to flipping until the wave died down falling back to the floor due to Gaara being unable to control that much wet sand for too long.

"Where'd he get so much sand?" Tenten asked as she tried to figure out where it all came from.

"My guess would be that he ground up the floor." Kakashi said as everyone saw the hole in the floor that the last bit of water in the puddle was falling into.

Gaara meanwhile was lifted back up into a vertical position by his sand as he glared at Lee before he touched his lips and noticed the blood that had clung there. All of a sudden the room felt a crippling pressure as Gaara unleashed the entire force of his KI as he said in a cold tone "You made me bleed. Yes, you'll prove my existence for certain. I'll kill you."

Everyone shuddered at how Gaara said that even as more sand flew at Lee who was quickly being boxed in. As the sand finally cornered Lee and prepared to slam into him from all sides, Gai shouted out "Lee! Open them!"

Lee had just enough time to look shocked before the sand slammed down on him.

"Lee!" Sakura shouted out before everyone felt a pulse of chakra and they all heard a shout of "First Gate: Initial Gate Open! Second Gate: Heal Gate Open!"

The sand exploded revealing Lee perfectly fine despite the fact that his spandex jumpsuit was ripped to pieces in the front revealing Lee's chest.

"No way." CNaruto muttered in shock as Kakashi shot Gai a sharp look and said "You taught him to open the Gates? Gai, what were you thinking?"

Gai's eyes shifted to look at Kakashi and he said "You have no right to lecture me on this Kakashi when you do not know that boy like I do. He has something precious that he would give his life for to prove, and I wanted to turn him into a man that could accomplish it."

Kakashi's eye narrowed as he said "Just tell me this Gai, how many?"

Gai smirked at his rival and said "Five."

"What?" Kakashi asked as his eye widened.

"Uh, what's a Gate?" CNaruto asked still trying to figure out how Lee could cause the sand to explode with that chakra burst when Gai said he couldn't use Gen or Ninjutsu.

While Kakashi and Gai launched into an explanation of the Gates, down on the floor Lee had been busy. The boy was steadily making his way back to Gaara avoiding the streams of wet sand that tried to trap him sometimes even just running straight through it too fast for it to properly react where it was weak enough. As Lee came at Gaara with all the inevitably of a train crash, Gaara had just enough time to widen his eyes before Lee's fist slammed into his face sending him flying. The punch was so strong and fast, all the Gennin saw was Lee suddenly appearing in front of Gaara and then the boy slamming headfirst into the statue at the back of the room sending cracks through the entire height of the statue as the force of the blow caused the Sand nin to be buried halfway in. Only Sasuke actually saw what happened and that was only a brief blur even with his Sharingan active.

"Ooh!" was pretty much the general consensus in the room as Naruto said "Oh, I don't care what village you're from, that's gotta HURT!"

Any amusement that statement might have brought was drowned out by a ferocious roar coming from the statue as it practically exploded revealing a figure almost completely covered in thick layers of sand leaving only the eyes visible. As the rest of the top half of the statue began dissolving into sand, Lee audibly swallowed before crossing his arms and shouted out "Third Gate: Life Gate Open!"

Another pulse of chakra shot out from the boy as his eyes turned completely white and his skin became red from his blood vessels being worked over time. As most of the Genin on the balconies stared at the sight in shock, Lee's head moved upwards to where his eyes were firmly fixed on Gaara before he vanished and reappeared right in front of Gaara's sand clad form kicking the side of the head hard enough to send the extremely heavier than usual red head flying into the wall over the foreigner side balcony.

As Lee dropped back down to the floor, an inhuman roar sounded from the rubble that was once part of the wall where Gaara was as even more sand came out followed by Gaara himself. Lee quickly dodged all of the sand that tried to bury him in a massive sand dune which sent water flying everywhere from the puddle he was in before Gaara's sand coated fist slammed into his face sending the boy flying into the double doors at the far end of the room.

As the boy wearily got to his feet, everyone else was looking at Gaara in shock. The boy was covered in a strange golden chakra that was radiating an unbelievable amount of bloodlust. Then the strange factor got kicked to a whole new level. Gaara started growling as the sand dune behind him flew into him and began turning his arms into ones that resembled that of a monster's.

Up in the balconies the members of the sand team all paled and Kankuro said "Ah shit! It's coming out!"

Kakashi snapped his head over to Kankuro and said "What's coming out?"

Kankuro had just enough time to say Gaara's inner demon before Gaara let loose a blood curling roar and launched his arms at Lee causing them to expand like they were made of rubber. Lee responded by disappearing from the arms' sight's and reappearing in front of Gaara in between his arms with his leg already meeting Gaara's chin as he shouted out "Leaf Whirlwind!"

Gaara's feet left the floor, but due to all of the sand all around him only went about five feet in the air.

"AH! He didn't float!" Sakura shouted remembering the fight he and Naruto had before the exams started.

"Duh, he's too heavy ." CNaruto said as Lee apparently decided that he didn't want to do things the same as his fight with Naruto any way and unlocked the next two gates and began knocking the sand covered redhead around like a pinball in the bumper section of a pinball machine.

As Kakashi and Sasuke barely kept up with the abuse the Azure Beast was laying into Gaara of the Desert with their Sharingans, CNaruto noticed something else out of the corner of his eye. Turning his head to look over at the end of the foreign balcony better, he saw the Sound team's Jounin sensei with a weird frown on his face as his eyes seemed to be able to keep up with Lee's speed with absolutely no trouble. Moving his head towards where the Hokage was showed that the war veteran was showing the exact same casual ease with keeping track of the action.

The shadow clone frowned and thought 'That guy's rubbing me the wrong way. Doesn't help that he looks like that pedophile that attacked boss in the forest.'

Shrugging it off as something that his creator would pick up on when he dispelled and could mill over later, CNaruto looked back up and saw that Lee had one of his medical bandages wrapped around Gaara's waist and was currently hitting Gaara away from him and pulling him back to him numerous times like a paddle ball. Raising an eyebrow he thought 'How is he even staying airborne for that?'

He was brought out of his thoughts as Lee shouted out "Reverse Lotus" and twisted his body and slammed a fist and leg into Gaara's body sending it into the last puddle that had somehow survived the fight sending water and sand everywhere. Lee landed a short distance away panting before his body gave out on him and he collapsed face down in the water.

As Lee struggled to roll himself over so that way he wouldn't potentially drown himself in two inches of water, everyone saw Gaara struggling to lift himself up from the crater he had made. As he lifted his arm towards a struggling Lee, everyone saw all the sand under him and his bare arms answering the question of how he was still conscious.

Lee had just managed to flip himself over and was taking deep breaths of air when he noticed the large batch of wet sand coming towards him. He began to desperately scrabble away but the sand was still able to grab hold of his left leg and arm. A dark gleam appeared in Gaara's eyes as he weakly closed his fist and said "Desert Coff-"

"Surf!"

The water molecules in the air multiplied an infinite amount of times faster than anyone could keep up with as a wave of water appeared out of nowhere over the entire Leaf balcony and slammed into the floor and the two contestants washing the sand away as it rushed out of the double doors for a second time that day. Everyone stared in shock at the two gasping boys for a moment before looking to where the voice had been to find a sight that really blew the weird factor off the scale.

Sasuke's shock though quickly became anger as he thought 'First a miniature sun, now a portable tsunami! I should have that power, not some clan less dead last! What will it take for everyone to realize that? I must find out what makes his transformations different. They're obviously the easiest way to defeat HIM.'

Currently making use of one of those transformations, Naruto's clone was now a large brown and white sea weasel with two tails and some kind of yellow flotation sac that started at the back of its neck and went down both its shoulders before ending in front of its two tails.

The clone, now a Floatzel, took a moment to thank his creator for actually having the foresight to learn the main Water type Hidden Move in addition to the primary Water type attack chain before he jumped off the railing dropping his transformation on the way down before walking over to Lee and offered his hand.

As he helped the Taijutsu specialist up and supported him Gaara's voice drifted over to them.

"Why? Why did you save him?"

CNaruto looked over his shoulder and said "For two reasons. He's my friend for one. And there's no reason to end his career over something as stupid as a preliminary fight for second."

"Friend?" Gaara asked as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Yeah, friend. You know, someone you would do anything for if they were in trouble? Although considering who I'm talking to you might not." CNaruto said with narrowed eyes.

Gaara's eyes narrowed as well before he clutched his head in pain and the boy began muttering to himself as if he was remembering a bad experience before he suddenly stopped and slowly got to his feet. CNaruto stiffened and prepared for a fight but Gaara simply walked past him and said "I give up."

Hayate coughed and said "Uh, due to interference, the winner of this match is Gaara of the desert."

As everyone tried to figure out just what happened in the last thirty seconds, Gai had jumped down and rushed over to where Lee and the shadow clone holding him up were. Said Taijutsu user was currently being checked over by a group of thoroughly soaked medics as the clone did its best to stay out of their way.

As Gai approached, one of the medics looked up and walked over to him and said "Are you the boy's teacher?"

"I am." Gai nodded.

The medic sighed and said "You have no idea how close your student came to not being a shinobi anymore."

Gai frowned and said "What do you mean?"

The medic looked back at the blond clone who was listening to the medics talking to the green clad beast and said "The muscles in his arms and legs have been almost completely torn and he's showing massive signs of exhaustion both physically and mentally. That's to be expected after opening the gates. But that's not the bad part. The bones in your student's left arm and leg show signs of being crushed. If Uzumaki's clone hadn't stepped in when he did, the bones in the arm and leg would probably be non existent right now. If that had happened, depending on how they broke, fragments from the leg could have pierced his spinal cord. He came very close to possibly not even being able to walk properly. As it is, he's going to be out of commission for at least three months while we fix the muscles and treat the bones so that they don't accidentally break apart whenever he puts weight on them."

Gai's face had been dead serious as the medic explained what was wrong with his student and once the medic was finished he gave a nod of thanks before walking over.

Once Lee saw him, he sat up from his laying down position and gave a salute and said "Gai-sensei! Please forgive me for this failure! To make up for it, I shall run 5,000 laps around the village, and if I cannot do that, then I shall climb the Monument barehanded 2,000 times!"

"Not in your condition you're not! You are going to stay in a bed for at least a week before we let you put any weight on that leg of yours." One of the medics said as he pushed the energetic boy back down while CNaruto chuckled at the boy's enthusiasm.

Gai smiled at his carbon copy and said "There is no need to apologize my most youthful student! For now, I want you to do everything these youthful men tell you to do. Once you are back at full strength, we will train a hundred times harder than before."

"Yes Gai-sensei!" Lee saluted before the medics took him away on a stretcher.

As the medics took the boy away, CNaruto shook his head and thought 'Talk about a training nut.'

He was brought out of his thoughts by Gai's arm on his shoulder. When the blonde looked up at him, said man gave a thumb's up and his teeth pinged as he smiled and said "I must thank you youthful clone. According to the medics you are the reason my most youthful student can still be a shinobi. For that you have my eternal thanks."

Said clone simply shrugged and said "Don't mention it. I simply reacted when I saw what Gaara was going to do."

"Be that as it may, if you ever need anything from me or my team, do not hesitate to ask." Gai said before rushing back up to the balcony telling Neji and Tenten the good news of Lee's eventual recovery.

"Wooow." CNaruto said and Kakashi chuckled from his spot behind the clone causing the blond to jump as he said "Yes, Gai can be quite eccentric at times."

Kakashi's flippant attitude did a one-eighty as his eye narrowed and he said "So tell me Naruto, I thought you said that you were going to hold off on the widespread attacks until you finished learning all of the primary attack chains."

CNaruto rubbed the back of his head and chuckled as he said "Well, boss thought it might come handy if we ever had to fight multiple enemies at once and we were caught off from the others."

Kakashi kept his stern look on the clone for a moment before his attitude again shifted and he eye-smiled and said "I see, well then, good luck learning the rest of them then."

As his creator's teacher then ruffled his hair and began walking toward the stairs, CNaruto wondered if Kakashi was bipolar or something before shaking his head from those thoughts and began heading up the stairs. As he climbed up, he saw that the board had already put up the last two fighters' names and shook his head again as he heard Chouji's declaration of his upcoming feast at the Bar-B-Que restaurant.

As Chouji rushed past him, CNaruto briefly wondered at how Asuma could possibly have thought his students were ready for the exam. Ino was a gossiping fan girl who would rather find out the latest piece of news in the village then train, Chouji's only motivation factor seemed to be food, and Shikamaru was a lazy sod with no motivation at all. How could a team like that possibly have any chance of having any of its members promoted?

As the blond clone retook his position beside his creator's team, Hayate coughed and said "Final match of the preliminaries, Chouji Akimichi vs Dosu Kinta. Begin"

As Hayate quickly jumped out of the way, his actions were mirrored by Chouji who also jumped to add some space between him and Dosu as he said "I know from seeing you fight in the forest that you have to get in close to use that weapon of yours even if you don't have to actually hit me. I also know that you use sound somehow. Well lets see you fight an opponent whose ears you can't reach!"

'Talk much?' CNaruto thought as Chouji expanded himself and began rolling all over the place trying to squash Dosu like an apple under the wheel of a cart. Dosu however just dodged around lazily before leading Chouji towards the wall where the "ahem" 'big-boned' boy managed to imbed himself halfway into the wall.

Dosu calmly walked towards Chouji's form as he said "You really are a useless fat tub of lard aren't you?"

"I can't hear you, my ears are covered!" Came Chouji's muffled response.

Dosu simply scoffed and said "Fun fact: 75% of the human body contains some from of water, which is an excellent conductor for sound." Stepping in closer to Chouji, Dosu casually flicked his melody gauntlet before burying his right arm half way into Chouji's form.

For a few seconds it looked like nothing had happened. But then Chouji suddenly shrunk back to normal size and everyone could see that he was passed out due to the way his eyes were unfocused.

Dosu once again scoffed at his opponent before turning towards the stairs and said "What a waste of my time."

Hayate coughed before saying "Winner: Dosu Kinta! Will everyone who won their matches please come down, we're about to choose the match ups for the finals."

The other eight finalists made their way down and followed Hayate as he led them to stand in a line in front of the Hokage and his Chunin escort. The old man studied the Chunin hopefuls in front of him as he thought 'Five Leaf, all but one of them rookies, three Sand, and one from Sound. Not a bad lineup this year.'

Clearing his throat, he said "Congratulations on all of you passing the preliminaries. In one month's time you will all get the chance to prove to some very important people why you deserve to be here. But before that can happen, we must first determine who you'll be fighting. If you would please Anko."

Anko nodded and stepped forward with a small bag in her hands and said "As I pass you take one of the pieces of paper in this bag. This will determine who will fight who."

Once everyone had a paper, Ibiki brought up his clipboard and said "All right brats, call out your number."

Dosu: 9

Gaara: 4

Kankuro: 6

Temari: 8

Naruto: 1

Sasuke 3

Neji:2

Shino:5

Shikamaru:7

As each of the Genin called out their numbers, Ibiki wrote in his clipboard before flipping it over and said "Right look closely, these will be the matches in a month. Round one: Naruto Uzumaki vs Neji Hyuga. Round two: Sasuke Uchiha vs Gaara of the Desert. Round three: Shino Aburame vs Kankuro of the Desert. Round four: Shikamaru Nara vs Temari of the Desert. Round five: winner of Round four vs Dosu Kinta."

Sarutobi took a deep draw on his pipe as he said "As you can see here, the next exam is set up as a tournament. But don't let this fool you into thinking that only one of you will become Chunnin. For you are judged not only on if you win your match or not, but how you fought it as well. So in reality, all of you could become Chunnin, or none at all. Now then, you have one month to prepare for this event. That time is yours to do with. Some of you may wish to come up with new techniques since you have shown your opponents everything you can do today. Others of you may wish to retrain your basics. Or, you could do nothing if you feel you're good enough."

As the old man finished his speech by telling them exactly when and where the final exam would be, various thoughts ran through each of the Gennin's heads.

'So I have to go through my entire bracket before fighting the Uchiha. Oh well, It's not like any of these weaklings will be much of a challenge.' Dosu thought as he spared a quick look at Shikamaru.

'The Uchiha will serve as an appropriate appetizer for mother. Then we can get to the main course.' Gaara's mouth twitched at that thought as he stared at Sasuke and Naruto.

'Man, am I glad I don't have to fight Gaara. If I did, then forget the plan, I'd forfeit right here and now.' Kankuro thought as he glanced over to his brother.

'Great, not only am I the only girl to get this far, I've got to fight that lazy bum to boot.' Temari thought.

'Boss will definitely be pleased.' CNaruto thought as he caught Neji's eye and gave the Cadet Branch member a grin that promised extreme amounts of pain in a month.

"So me vs that Gaara kid. He'll do to test myself. Then I'll beat the Dead Last and force him to teach me how to use those seal less attacks of his.' Sasuke smirked to himself as he saw Gaara looking towards him and his teammate.

'Fate has decreed that Uzumaki shall lose to me. Very well.' Neji looked over to Naruto's clone and despite himself couldn't help a small tingle at the small of his back at the grin the clone was giving him.

'So a puppet user will be my first match, and then either the wind user or Shikamaru afterwards. I will have to ask my father for advice on how to train.' Shino thought as he kept his head forward even as his eyes took in each of the Gennin around him.

'Sigh, what a drag. Not only do I have to fight more matches than anyone else, but one of them is against a girl. Why did I even bother taking this exam? Oh yeah, my mother would have been on my case until I took the next one.'

Scene Change: Konoha's ICU Hinata's Room: One Hour Later

Naruto looked up from the seat he was in where he had been keeping watch over Hinata's sleeping form as the rest of Team 8 filed into the room with Kakashi and his clone with them.

"How is she?" Kurenai asked as she took in the girl's features. Hinata had regained most of her color although she was still a bit pale. The heiress was currently hooked up to machines that monitored her heart rate while at the same time sending small electrical pulses to it that mimicked the bioelectric signals normally sent by the brain to make sure it continued to beat properly.

"She'll be alright. The doctors said that getting her here as fast as we did really helped. Right now they have her knocked out but are going to wake her up tomorrow in order to run some tests on her."

Kurenai nodded and joined her other two students around the bed as she gently moved a strand of hair away from Hinata's face. As Team 8 stood around one of their own, Naruto's clone dispelled itself and Naruto frowned as he began processing everything that he had 'missed' while he was watching over Hinata.

'That Gaara guy is definitely a dangerous one. It's not very hard to guess what would have happened to Lee if no one interfered there. Looks like my theory on that Dosu guy was right as well. Primarily close range and typically relies on that gauntlet thing of his. Me against Neji eh? Perfect, I'll be able to knock some sense into that idiot and not get into trouble for it. Sasuke vs Gaara could be a problem though. I may not like the prick but I would rather have someone not from the Leaf fighting that guy. Still, I could probably win if I stuck with Water type attacks. Shino'll probably have a bit of a challenge dealing with Gaara's brother since both the Aburame clan and puppet users rarely fight in close and personal themselves and instead rely on their bugs and puppets respectively. Shikamaru will most likely win against Temari since even though he's a lazy ass bum one month is plenty of time for that scary mind all Nara males seem to have to come up with something. From what I saw though he might just forfeit before his fight even begins. And that just leaves Dosu. Yeeeah, that guy's toast either way. Shikamaru would never let him get close enough and Gaara's sister would probably just blow him out of the arena.'

Kakashi watched as his student processed his clone's memories before he said "Naruto, I'm afraid I have some bad news."

Naruto turned his head to look at his teacher and said "What is it Kakashi-sensei?"

Kakashi sighed and said "Chunnin exam rules state that a Jounin sensei with more than one student make it to the finals can only train one of them. Supposedly it's so that way none of the contestants knows what another will be capable of. But either way I need to get Sasuke to the point where he won't become a blood stain in the arena and what I need to teach him isn't something I want getting around."

Naruto's eyes narrowed as he said "So I'm going to have to find someone else to help me train for the finals."

Kakashi nodded and said "That's right. I know a few Jounin that owe me a few favors that could help. Or you could train on your own. If I remember correctly, you're working on an attack chain right now. You could finish that by yourself and I could give you a chakra exercise to work on that would come in handy in the future. I'm going to be teaching this exercise to Sasuke and Sakura as well before we leave since it's such an important skill to have."

Naruto closed his eyes in thought as he went over what Kakashi told him and the cons and pros of each option. On one hand, anyone Kakashi got to teach him would have to have the scarecrow's trust to do a good job getting Naruto ready for the finals. On the other hand, Naruto and his partners had a unique way of fighting which needed to be taken into account. Anything that the teacher Kakashi found for him tried to teach him would have to fit with that style of fighting and he wasn't sure if there was anyone who fit the bill. He also had to take into account that he was currently working on his third attack chain. Would whoever he got to teach him hinder progress on it?

Finally after a few minutes of thought, Naruto opened his eyes and said "Thanks for the offer sensei, but I don't think anyone you find could teach me anything that I could actually use in a fight. The ones who are closest to how me and my partners fight are the Inuzukas and none of them really use elemental attacks unless they absolutely have to. (At this Kiba gave a nod showing that they were mainly Taijutsu fighters.) Also, I want to help my partners evolve to their final forms before we fight Neji and them just dodging kunai and shuriken from some teacher won't give them the needed experience. They're going to have to go all out against each other each day to level up fast enough and I'm going to have to be right in there with them. My clones can work on the attack chain during this but a teacher trying to teach me something that I might or might not be able to use would just be in the way during that."

Kakashi nodded and said "I had a feeling you would want to go on you own on this one Naruto. Very well, I'll let you do this your way since I'm pretty sure no one wants to be in the middle of an all out fight between you and your partners. The chakra exercise I have for you is one you've seen already when I fought Zabuza, Water Walking. As I'm sure you've guessed from the Tree Climbing experience, you need to regulate your chakra just right for this to work. Too much chakra and your likely to blast yourself off the water and more likely to do a belly flop than anything else. Too little and you sink straight to the bottom of whatever your practicing on. But a key difference between these two exercises is that instead of just letting out a fixed bit of chakra to stick to a solid surface with the Tree Climbing exercise, to Water Walk you need to release a continuous stream of chakra to stay on top of the water. Oh also, I would head to the hot springs for this one. The water in them makes good motivation to stay on top of them instead of in."

Naruto gave a short nod at the last bit of info before Kakashi gave a short wave and left in a cloud of smoke.

Naruto got out of his seat and walked over to Hinata's bed and laid a hand on her forehead as he said "Get well soon Hinata. And don't worry about Neji. I'm going to teach that guy one lesson that he's not likely to forget soon, if ever."

Naruto caught the looks of appreciation from the rest of Team 8 as he nodded to them and left the room to head to the hot springs.

Scene Change: Hot Springs

Naruto's partners erupted out of their Pokeballs in the custom red flash and looked around as Naruto stepped over to the hot spring at the entrance. Kneeling down and putting a hand into it he thought 'Kakashi-sensei can be a real sadist sometimes. I don't know why I'm even doing this here.'

Standing back up with a sigh, Naruto took off his jacket, shirt and pants leaving him in nothing but a pair of black boxers. Then, as his partners watched in anticipation, he made the ram sign gathering his chakra before stepping onto the water-and promptly fell in. Two seconds later, Naruto was out of the water with red skin as his partners began rolling on the floor laughing at him.

"Yeah, yeah.. Laugh it up guys." Naruto said as he glared at the three. Sighing again, he turned back to the pool of steaming evil and thought 'I'm glad I took off most of my clothes. It'd be murder doing this with wet clothes on.'

Naruto brought his hands back together and brought forth more chakra than before and stepped back onto the water only to make it one step and fall in on the second. Coming up sputtering, Naruto heard his partners roaring with even louder laughter.

Glaring at them, he said "Oh so you think that's funny do you?"

When all three Pokemon nodded to him, Naruto grew a tick mark and he said "Then why don't you three join me? I know a perfect recipe for some lizard and turtle stew, and it just so happens that the recipe calls for some vegetables as well."

The intended threat didn't quite work as it should have as the three just laughed even louder. Naruto growled to himself as he pulled his body out of the pool planning on throwing his partners in and then working on the exercise on the river that ran along the hot springs.

But before he could get revenge and possibly murder one of his partners by potentially dousing Charmeleon's resilient tail flame, he and his partners heard someone giggling. And not the kind of giggling that a girl or woman would be giving at their antics. No, Naruto recognized that kind of giggle and he suddenly became pissed for a completely different reason. His sensei giggling like that while reading a book he could take. But being where he was, Naruto was pretty sure no book was out right now. After all, why read porn when you could peak on women in the springs right?

Growling to himself, Naruto pulled a sealing scroll out of his vest and gave himself a quick towel off before he resealed the towel and put on his uniform before walking past his partners towards where he had heard the giggling.

As he walked past them, the three Pokemon traded glances and Wartortle grinned as he said in a singsong voice "Oh, Some-one's in troouble."

Naruto ignored Wartortle as the three Pokemon followed him to some bushes on the side of the women's side of the springs. When they got there the saw a man with long white hair in a ponytail, a red gi with a green one underneath and a mesh shirt under that with Kabuki sandals and a twin horned headband with kanji for oil finishing the ensemble.

Naruto gave the man a quick once over before he cleared his throat and said "You know, I can tolerate my teacher being a pervert since he keeps it to reading those darn books. But I can't stand anyone who tries to get a free show out of women without their knowledge."

The man raised a hand and said "Bugger off kid. Can't you see I'm doing research?"

Naruto scoffed and said "That's not research, that's you being a shameless pervert. Now I suggest you leave now."

"Oh yeah, and what are you going to do to make me kid?" The man asked not moving his head an inch away from his spot.

His answer cam from a gesture from Naruto to Ivysaur who nodded and sent a vine out which quickly wrapped around the pervert's foot much to his surprise.

"What the-" The man got out as he looked down to his foot before Ivysaur jerked him up and then slammed him back down on the ground hard multiple times before hanging the man in front of Naruto again by his foot.

As the man tried to clear the swirls in his eyes, Naruto said "That's what I'll do you big perv, now enjoy your bath."

Ivysaur smirked and whipped the man in a circle before he launched him over the fence they were by and down headfirst onto one of the large stones that surrounded the hot springs. Naruto smiled at all of the screams coming from over the fence and thought 'Ah, justice is served. There you go you big perv, you wanted to see naked women, well now you can see them as they beat you senseless.'

Gesturing to his partners to follow him, he began walking away as he said "Come on guys, let's find a better place to practice water walking. And don't forget we need to start getting you guys ready to evolve again."

The three Pokemon each gave their own kind of affirmative as the beating of one pervert continued behind the fence.

Author's Notes: Hey guys, sorry this took so long. It was a period of off and on writing for a short while and then when I finally get my rear end in gear my computer's power adaptor decide to clutz out and I had to take it in for a week to get the computer taken apart and put in a whole new board part. Anyway, now that this is out, I can finally get onto the better parts where I don't have to transcribe stuff. Next chapter should come out a whole lot quicker. In the meantime, enjoy these two previews.

Preview 1: Final Exams: Naruto's Thunder

Neji groaned as tried to lift his bruised and battered form. As he raised his head, he growled at the sight of that damn blond still in that damn small form with that twice damnable smirk and sparks coming from his red cheeks. Looking up into the sky only made Neji's mood darker.

Where there once was only a couple of white clouds floating across high over head, now there was just one big roiling mass of storm clouds with the occasional bolt of lightning leaping from cloud to cloud.

Poofing sounds drew Neji's attention back to the ground where Naruto had made twenty three clones. But unlike the original who was a Pikachu, these twenty three clones each held a different form that somehow denoted their status as an Electric type.

Naruto's clones grinned at Neji as a lightning bolt managed to break the cloud cover and flashed across the sky. The original Naruto was frowning at Neji though as he said "Neji, the moment you tried to kill Hinata, you brought about my fury. The minute you were selected as my opponent, I was given the opportunity to unleash all that fury without any consequences."

Another lightning bolt flashed across the top of the arena as Naruto continued. "You really messed up big time Neji. You thought that my partners' attacks and a few electric type attacks were bad? You haven't seen anything yet."

"Alpha" a clone in the back shouted

"Mike" another on the side answered

"Foxtrot/FOXTROT" This time every single electric type rose their voice as the sky roared overhead.

"GOOD BYE, MOTHER FU-" The last word was drowned out as twenty four bolts of lightning streaked down blinding everyone as they slammed into the ground.

Preview 2 : Invasion!

Naruto's clone smirked as he looked out of the barrier where his creator and the old man were now safely outside. Looking back at Orochimaru who had an extremely pissed off look and looked ready to tear through him and his twelve brothers caused CNaruto to smirk even more at the pedophile.

Orochimaru snarled at the clones who seemed to be mocking him as he said "You have messed with my plans for the last time you damn Kyubi brat."

The clone chuckled as he said "Ah Orochimaru, you've spent so much time trying to become immortal, you have forgotten one very important thing."

"And what is that?" Orochimaru asked dangerously.

CNaruto's smirk turned evil as he and his psychic type brothers made a hand sign before they were covered in smoke. When it cleared, the twelve clones around the area were now Snorlaxes while the clone who had been doing the talking looked like a male Yamanaka.

Orochimaru rose an eyebrow and said "Oh, and how might you know about Deidara hm?"

CNaruto smirked and said "You'd be surprised how easy it is to get a hold of a bingo book with Kakashi as your sensei. Still, I did say that you had forgotten something, and now I'm going to tell you what that is."

Grinning, Deidara rose his hand in a half-hand sign causing Orochimaru's eyes to widen and said "Art, is an explosion!"

Orochimaru's wide eyes turned into full panic as he shouted "Drop the barrier! Now!"

"Katz!"

The entire arena shuddered as the explosive force of a six ton bomb went off inside the barrier rocking the building underneath.


	16. Evolution: Take Two

16. Evolution: Take Two

Author's Notes: Hey guys, sorry for this taking so long. It was kind of off and on again. I hope the results were worth the wait for you guys.

Story Start: Clearing By Waterfall 15

There were a number of waterfalls around the Hidden Leaf Village. For simplicity's sake these waterfalls were all given numbers that were given by location and distance to the village's main gates going in a clockwise manner.

As Naruto and his partners came upon a clearing that was close to one of the bigger waterfalls he nodded to himself and thought 'This place should work. I've got a river that I can water walk on and the guys can go all out here and not have to worry about tearing any buildings apart and the place is far enough away from the village that no one will come if storms suddenly start popping up.'

Turning to his partners he said "Alright guys, we have one month to get you guys to your final forms. But to do that, we need to get all three of you at least ten levels higher. So how are we going to get you ten levels higher in a month's time?" An evil glint came to his eyes causing his partners to gulp as he said "It's simple really, you guys are going to be fighting an all out team vs team war against three man teams of clones. Each team you fight is going to have a different type group which will give you experience in fighting against different type advantages. And even if only the Fire and Water types can use any Attacks that I consider to be actual attacks, they can all still use their more physical abilities. Now then, your goal for each day will be to defeat one more team than you did the day before. Since today is the first day and we're starting late, I want you to defeat at least five teams today. Any questions?"

Seeing that there were none, Naruto said "Alright then, lets get started. Your first team to fight against are going to be Flying Types. Now remember, I can already duplicate most of their attacks by just adding chakra to my wings so stay on alert."

The three Pokemon nodded and Naruto made the necessary hand sign causing three puffs of smoke to appear by his sides. As the smoke cleared it revealed a Pidgeot and Staraptor on his left and on his right was a Noctowl. The three bona fide Pokemon each stiffened as they studied their opponents while the rather large birds did the same. Meanwhile, Naruto stepped to the left of his partners and rose his hand as he said "First battle: Start!"

As his hand dropped down the Starters rushed their opponents with Tackles and a Shadow Claw hoping to end it quick only for the three birds to open their wings and send the three flying with chakra enhanced wing flaps which also served to get the three airborne.

Naruto watched them for the first five seconds before he walked away to a safe area away from any sonic booms that he knew were coming and headed towards where he could create more clones to work on the Primary Electric Attack Chain and then headed over to the river to work on the water walking.

(Charmeleon VS Noctowl)

As soon as Naruto said start, Charmeleon launched himself at the biggest clone that just so happened to be right in front of him. But even as he started up a Shadow Claw attack he saw the clone and his brothers open their wings which glowed blue for an instant before he and his friends were sent flying by an imitated Gust which allowed the three flyers to take to the air. Charmeleon was then buffeted a second time as the Pidgeot took off at speeds Charmeleon had never even imagined and let loose with a sonic boom.

Picking himself up and growling both to himself and to his opponent who was currently fifteen feet off the ground, Charmeleon opened his mouth and shot a wide spread Amber attack hoping to at the very least maneuver the clone closer to the ground. The plan ended up working, just not how Charmeleon wanted it to. The Noctowl tucked its wings in and dived to the ground before leveling off an inch from crashing and shot right at the Flame Pokemon with glowing wings as it honed in on him.

Charmeleon didn't like the sight of that and quickly jumped out of the way and was instantly glad he did as Noctowl's wings shredded through the high grass that was level with Charmeleon's knees before it pulled up and came around in a wide but fast circle ready to knock Charmeleon into next week. Charmeleon in turn responded by opening it's mouth again and let loose with a Smokescreen that completely covered the area they were fighting leaving the Flying type completely blind as it hadn't had a chance to change direction. That wasn't a problem for long though when a glowing tail slammed into the bird's beak causing the clone to dispel.

As the Smokescreen dispersed, Charmeleon frowned and thought 'Well, that was disappointing. I was expecting more of a challenge.' A quick glance at the other two battles going on showed that Wartortle was having the time of his life while Ivysaur was gritting his teeth. Shaking his head, Charmeleon went over to where his trainer was trying to walk on the river over a hundred yards away from his partners and a good hundred feet from where his other clones were attempting to learn how to use Thunder Shock.

As he got closer, Naruto said "Not bad Charmeleon. I thought my clones could handle you guys for a little longer but it looks like I was wrong."

Charmeleon merely nodded as he sat down to wait.

(Wartortle VS Staraptor)

Wartortle launched himself at his opponent and ended up getting thrown back by a blast of wind for his troubles. As he back flipped to land he opened his mouth and shot a Water Gun at the Staraptor who had to quickly dodge or risk being grounded less than five seconds after liftoff. Undeterred, Wartortle landed and built up energy before launching himself at the Flying type a second time with a full powered Skull Bash blasting straight through a second blast of air that came from the Pidgeot clone as it rushed Ivysaur.

The clone actually squawked at him earning a rogue's grin as it was barely able to dodge the second attempt to ends its flight before it quickly spun in midair and rapidly flapped its chakra laden wings sending Wartortle into the ground skidding as blasts of wind that would shred a kite were brought to bare.

Wartortle turned his skid into a Rapid Spin and used the wind to send him out of its range before popping back out of his shell sending an Ice Beam at the perpetrator. Staraptor's eyes bulged out as the blue lightning bolt headed straight toward him. Staraptor panicked and tried to get out of the way by flapping its wings in order to go up and back.

Unfortunately, the attack was almost as fast as actual lightning and was able to hit the bird's tail completely encasing it in ice. Staraptor's maneuvering to avoid the attack quickly turned into desperate flapping as the clone tried to stay airborne and not crash into anything at the same time.

Not satisfied with his opponent trying its best to win an unwinable battle against gravity, Wartortle let loose with a Water Pulse that slammed into the slower than usual bird which instantly turned into smoke when it was hit.

Wartortle's grin never left his face and he was still grinning as he saw Charmeleon near Naruto already done with his own fight and Ivysaur dealing with the Pidgeot clone with some trouble. Wartortle was sure the Grass type could win though. Deciding to join his Fire type friend, he quickly rushed over and the two watched Ivysaur finish his match.

(Ivysaur VS Pidgeot)

Ivysaur knew he had the worst opponent for him to have possibly gone up against compared to his two friends. It wasn't the fact that Flying types were one of the most effective against Grass types although there was that. No, his problem was that his trainer had used this form the most whenever he used a Flying type and most likely could wipe the floor with all of the other Flying types in a single dogfight with it if he fought right. While he was sure his friends would end their matches quickly, (Seriously, just because you took an evolved Pokemon's form didn't mean you were at that form's evolved level. You have to know how to use that form and its attacks.) going against Naruto in this form could be tantamount to suicide if he wasn't careful.

Case in point: as soon as Ivysaur was sent flying the clone flapped its wings again and shot right at him at Mach 2 creating a sonic boom behind it before the two bodies met sending Ivysaur flying towards the edge of the clearing where he slammed into a tree putting a massive dent in it and cracking it all along the trunk. The Pidgeot meanwhile kept going and disappeared into the woods and kept its course for a minute before going into a vertical climb to gain some altitude.

As Ivysaur shakily got to his feet he shook his to clear it and looked into the forest and thought 'Damn it, I thought Staraptor's top speed was the fastest that he could handle. Now I find out he mastered that oversized turkey's speed. When the hell did he learn how to handle it? It couldn't have been before the exams started or he would have used it instead of Staraptor when Sakura and that Emo were attacked in the forest.'

He was brought out of his musings when he heard a low thundering sound from above him coming straight towards him. Eyes widening, Ivysaur quickly jumped out of the way and got thrown to the side like a rag doll as the Pidgeot clone's sonic boom slammed into him like a train hitting a compact that Ivysaur remembered the old professor once driving.

Unfortunately for Ivysaur, the clone managed to pull out of its insane dive a couple feet from turning into bird pancake. Using the force of gravity that had sped the bird up even more, Naruto's clone was back in the forest on the other side of the clearing before Ivysaur could even get back to his feet.

As Ivysaur looked around for his opponent he saw that his two friends and their enemies hadn't been affected by the second sonic boom's passage. Scowling to himself he thought 'Great I'm the only one who's getting thrown around like a rag doll here. I've got to get that overgrown pigeon to slow down or I'll be at this all day.' The clone seemed to have other ideas though as it shot out of the forest perpendicular from where he entered and flew just a foot over Ivysaur's head slamming him into the ground from its backlash. It seemed that the clone was content in letting the effects of breaking the sound barrier do all the work.

Growling, Ivysaur thought 'Okay, first things first, take that sonic boom out of the equation. And I have just the move to do it. Naruto was right when he had me learn this move, it'll all be over in a flash. Lets see how that bird likes flying with a source of light right in front of it.'

Ivysaur was brought out of his musings as he heard the sonic boom returning. Grinning, he oriented himself into the right position and saw the clone heading straight towards the area over his head again. Ivysaur's grin turned feral as he thought 'And then there was light.' "Flash!"

The bud on Ivysaur's back sprung open and a small light instantly formed in it's center before a split second later it increased in brightness to rival a Magmar's natural sun imitation. The clone got hit full blast five feet away and yelled out in pain as its sensitive eyes hit a massive light source before it adjusted its course to straight vertical to avoid hitting a tree.

Ivysaur knew it wouldn't be long before the clone came back at a much slower pace to bring about its revenge. Thinking quickly, Ivysaur began spreading a special powder out of his bulb that would hopefully slow the bird down. As Ivysaur's Sleep Powder began forming a slight mist around a fifty foot area, Ivysaur hoped the resistance most Flying types had to being put to sleep wasn't transferred over to the clone when it transformed.

Unfortunately, Ivysaur would never get to find out during this particular fight as the clone came diving towards him before spotting the powder in the air and began flapping its wings a certain way creating a massive twister to form that sucked in all the powder while the clone shot past it. Ivysaur didn't have anytime to curse this fact though as a wing coated in chakra was headed right for his head now.

Seeing that wing under a foot from his head, Ivysaur almost panicked but was able to keep his cool long enough to shout out "Razor Leaf!" As the sharp leaves flew from his bulb, Ivysaur had the satisfaction of seeing the clone's eyes bulge out before it flew straight into the barrage and disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Ivysaur got his heart rate back under control before he looked around to find his friends. Seeing them sitting together near their trainer, he began walking over to join them.

As Ivysaur made it over to his trainer who began talking to him, a certain white haired pervert hiding amongst the trees was trying to figure out just what the hell he had seen. He had quickly tracked down the blond kid to get his revenge only to see him create shadow clones that turned into these weird creatures that seemed to be trying to learn how to do a jutsu and three others take on some other strange creatures. He was sure that his eardrums were as close to bursting as possible after one of those clones did a flyby over him once.

The man was just contemplating how useful something that fast could be in sending messages when he saw the original blond suddenly look towards where he was hiding. Before the pervert could curse the fact that he had apparently been found out, a clone appeared next to the original before quickly turning into another one of those strange creatures and disappeared in a flash of blue. The man had just enough time to think Hirashin before he felt a blade against his throat.

"Well, well. If it isn't the pervert. Hate to tell you this but there aren't any women here for you to peek on."

The unwelcome spectator gulped as he looked down at the green blade that merged into the creature's elbow and formed the lower arm. Following the arm up to the elbow towards the creature's face showed a transformed clone scowling at him as it kept its arm steady and the point of its right blade against his Adam's apple.

The transformed clone jerked its head towards the clearing and the man slowly stood up before the clone maneuvered the blade to the front point resting lightly against his back without once leaving his body. As the two began walking into the clearing the man thought that he was really hoping that the clone's creator wouldn't order it to cut off his bits.

Naruto meanwhile was now on the shore waiting for the clone to 'escort' their guest that the Pidgeot clone had seen during one of its flybys. When the man was marched out and he saw who it was he frowned. He really didn't want to deal with a pervert right now.

He was brought out of his thoughts by Wartortle pulling his pant leg. Looking down at his partner, he saw him and the other two looking at him impatiently. Smiling since he knew what they wanted, Naruto made three more clones who then transformed themselves into Fire types. A Ninetails, an Arcanine, and a Rapidash to be exact.

Ivysaur looked at the three clones and groaned at the fact that once again he would probably be the only one who would have a tough time again. His two friends chuckled before both gave a play punch to Ivysaur's shoulders and took off back to their fighting space. Ivysaur sighed and looked over his shoulder at Naruto and said "You're enjoying this chance to torture me aren't you?"

Naruto simply smiled and made a shooing motion earning a glare from his Grass type partner before walking towards his friends as the Fire type clones joined them. Turning back to their intruder, Naruto frowned at the man who was looking at his partners and the Fire type clones in a funny way. Or more specifically, at the Ninetails clone.

Snapping his fingers to get the guy's attention, Naruto said "Alright you geezer, we can do this two ways, the easy way, where you tell me what the hell you're doing spying on my training. Or, we can do the second option which personally I'd prefer where I make a few clones and we all transform into Fighting types and beat you senseless before throwing you over that waterfall over there for good measure. So which one is it?"

The man's eyes narrowed as if he was daring Naruto go through with his threat before he sighed and said "Well brat, truthfully I was going to come for some revenge, but then I saw your partners and your clones transform and decided to see what they could do. Never seen anything like that, if you don't mind telling me, what kind of summons are they?"

Naruto's own eyes narrowed and he said "Not that it's any of your business, but they're not summons. They're my partners, now who are you?"

The man smirked and suddenly Naruto's clone was nothing but a cloud of smoke before a second cloud of smoke appeared and then quickly dispersed revealing a giant toad that the man was standing on as he started doing a kabuki dance while kabuki instruments sounded in the background.

"Behold! The great sage of Mt. Myoboku! Men worship me! Women adore me! The grrreaaat Super Pervert Jiraiya!"

Crickets chirped as Naruto shot the obviously disturbed man a deadpanned look before raising his right hand with his pointer finger and thumb applying pressure to each other in preparation to flick something before his pointer became lightly covered in chakra and Naruto seemingly flicked the air as he said "Aeroblast."

The man was thrown off his toad as a miniature bullet of air the size of Naruto's fingernail slammed into his stomach sending him a good five feet from where he started from. The toad turned its head to look at Jiraiya who was shakily getting to his feet before it rolled its eyes and disappeared in a burst of smoke.

"Traitor." Jiraiya muttered under his breath before he suddenly found a brightly glowing finger held just under his nose ready to flick. 'Brat's pretty fast.' Jiraiya thought as he followed the connected arm down to Naruto's face which was currently set in a frown as he said "You know, if there is one thing that I really hate that's not associated with being a ninja, it's a pervert. Now give me one reason why I shouldn't send you back to that hot spring again. I'm sure the ladies there would love to have another go at you."

Jiraiya rose his hands in a placating manner and said "Now, now, lets not be hasty here. Why don't I teach you a justu that can come in real handy instead?" Taking the raised eyebrow as a sign to continue, he said "You saw me summon that toad right? What if I allowed you to sign the toad contract and taught you how to do the same? I'm sure they could help you and those partners of yours."

Naruto's eyes narrowed for a second in thought before he suddenly shifted his aim and said "Yeeah, thanks but no thanks. Aeroblast!" Jiraiya went flying, not in an arc like Naruto had originally intended but straight back from the force of the point blank attack to his stomach. The force of his flight was so great that he actually hit a tree over three hundred feet away on the other side of the clearing and went through that only to put a huge dent in the next tree in line stopping his flight while the first tree began falling over to the side.

Naruto lifted his finger that was slightly smoking from being overloaded with chakra to his mouth and gave a quick blow on it and smirked as he thought 'Aeroblast. One of the only two attacks I bothered to modify enough where I could use them untransformed. And totally worth it.'

As Jiraiya once again tried to stand up he thought 'Damn, that thing nearly packed as much of a punch as Tsunade's Flick of Doom.' Looking up, he saw Naruto turn around and walk back to the river and began working on Water Walking again. Gaining a tick mark at the blond brat ignoring him, Jiraiya grit his teeth and stomped back over to him.

"Oi brat! What do you think you're doing, flicking me like that and then just ignoring me?"

Naruto looked back over his shoulder from where he was about half way across the river and shot him a deadpanned look. Turning back to his task, he said "You still here? I thought I just made it clear that I didn't want you here. Maybe I should have shot you back to the hot springs after all."

Jiraiya growled and said "That's it brat! It's time to teach you some respect!" He then launched himself at the arrogant git ready to knock his socks off. His punch might have connected if Naruto hadn't cut the chakra flow from his feet and dropped into the river. As Jiraiya landed on the river, he looked down and scowled before shouting out "Come back up here and take your beating like a man! No one disrespects the great Jiraiya! Definitely not some wet behind the ears green horn brat like you!"

The only response he seemed to get was one of the clones working on the Electric chain dispelling itself. Jiraiya took a quick one second glance to confirm that the clone had actually dispelled and wasn't used for a replacement before focusing back on the river. He was going to wish it had been a replacement though as two seconds later electricity poured out into the river from under him. And while it wasn't anything that could make his heart stop, Jiraiya found himself being shocked enough to lose focus on his chakra and down he went.

Once in the water, Jiraiya found his problem multiplied by at least three times as his body started twitching from the electric current that was still flowing through the water which actually intensified the charge's power. As Jiraiya struggled to move his arms to form the needed sign for substitution, he noticed a light at the bottom of the river that revealed where the electricity was coming from. It was pouring off a large fish that was almost exactly four feet long with a predominately dark blue body with yellow scales going around its eyes looking like some superhero's mask and a stem that had two bulbs on it where the light was. The fish was currently glaring at him as the weak electrical current flowed off its body.

But then it seemed Jiraiya was going to get a break as the fish suddenly stopped the current leaving Jiraiya twitching. That all changed as the fish swam up from the bottom of the river and body slammed the pervert straight out of the river.

As Jiraiya sputtered and coughed trying to get the water out of his lungs, the Lanturn burst out of the water before being covered in smoke at the climax of its arc and Naruto fell out of it landing on top of the water in a crouch.

"You had enough you pervert? Or am I going to have to transform again?"

Jiraiya growled at the kid and said "Tell me something kid before I beat you senseless. Why don't you want to learn how to summon?"

Naruto looked at him like he was stupid before he pointed towards where his partners hadn't stopped fighting the Fire types and then pointed to his clones who were still working on getting more than just electricity pouring off their bodies in random directions as he said "Why would I want to have partners I would need to summon when my own partners are always with me. Also, in case you haven't noticed, I can become quite a few Pokemon myself. What use could I possibly have for a bunch of toads?"

Jiraiya's jaw dropped as he stuttered out "B-but, they can be useful in so many ways!" 'If I don't get Minato's son to at least take the test, Bunta will kill me!'

Naruto, unaware of Jiraiya's likely upcoming death, said "Oh yeah? Name one thing they can do that me and my partners can't accomplish."

"They can send messages, near instantly if need be."

"I can turn into a bird that can break the sound barrier and turn into Pokemon who can teleport to anywhere I've been before."

"They can help you scout out and spy on enemy bases with some of their small size."

"I can turn into Ghost types which can turn invisible and pass through solid objects."

"They're good in a fight when you're outnumbered?"

"So are my partners and I can make shadow clones and transform them as well."

"Boss summons are very big and come in handy when fighting other summons."

Naruto's eyes narrowed and he asked "How big is very big?"

Jiraiya mentally cheered as he thought he might have a shot now and said "Usually they're around fifty feet tall. Some are even bigger."

Naruto snorted and said "I call bull shit. There is no way that anything short of a biju or a Wailord could get that big, and Wailords are only forty seven feet tall. The only things that are bigger than fifty feet are the tailed beasts or the Shinnoh legendaries. And last time I checked, My partners were the last of their kind. Now if that's everything, please go. I really need to master water walking, and my clones can't start with the real dangerous attacks until you're gone."

Jiraiya twitched before he thought 'He definitely inherited Kushina's stubborn streak. Still, I know how to deal with people like them. They learn by doing and their actions speak louder than words. Sorry to break it to you kid, but you're about to get a rude awakening.' Right after he finished that thought, Jiraiya bit his thumb drawing blood and made five quick hand signs before slamming his palm on the ground. Naruto had just enough time to jump over to the other side of the river before a massive smoke cloud appeared and he heard all of his Electric type clones disperse under the immense object that appeared. His three partners and Fire type clones immediately stopped there matches as they saw what had just appeared out of thin air.

As Naruto stared up at the giant toad he thought 'Okay, maybe the guy wasn't pulling my leg. Still, if he thinks that impresses me, then he's going to be disappointed. Now which Pokemon should I turn into? It can't be one of the legendaries since they naturally affect the weather and it can't be Wailord since I'd make to big of a dent and they aren't very mobile out of the water. Hm, that could work. After all, just because Dex says they were a certain size doesn't mean I can't tweak the transformations a little.'

Jiraiya would have smirked down at the blond but before he could, the giant toad opened his large mouth and said **"Jiraiya! Why have you summoned me? There's no fight around here."**

Jiraiya was just about to explain to Gamabunta what was going on when the two heard a voice shout below them in a highlander's accent "So you summoned a fifty foot _toad_. Big _Deal_. Watch this! TRANSFORM!"

A truly massive surge of chakra was felt before a cloud of smoke rushed past summon and summoner's head stopping at easily twice the height of Gamabunta's head. When it cleared, Jiraiya's jaw dropped at the sight of an Ursaring that was almost twenty times its normal size.

Gamabunta's eyes widened and he said **"Jiraiya! I hope you're not expecting me to fight that thing. There is no way I'm going to fight a bear that's twice my size without support."**

Said Ursaring smirked down at Jiraiya and said **"Still think I'd need my own summon to beat a boss summon you old perv?"**

Jiraiya pointed up at Naruto's head and opened his mouth to say something but all that came out was gibberish. Shaking his head at him, Naruto leaned down until his nose was right in front of him and said **"Now that we have established that I don't need to summon, allow me to escort you from the premises."**

The giant bear took in a deep breath and Gamabunta braced himself for anything. Even so, he was not prepared for what happened next.

"HHHHRRRAAAAWWWWWWRRRRRRRRR!"

You think a lion's roar is loud? It has nothing on a hundred foot grizzly bear's roar. And that's not counting the fact that Naruto was literally Roaring, using chakra to enhance the attack. Jiraiya was immediately sent flying from Gamabunta's head as the trees behind them were uprooted and thrown at least five hundred feet. Gamabunta himself found himself being lifted up into the air and thrown back as his summoner took flight and landed somewhere halfway back to the village. As the large toad landed over a hundred feet away, his eyes were wide as he thought **'What a way to attack! It felt like it had reached into my instincts and screamed at me to run. I could actually feel it in my bones that I should run away from him. Even now my body's demanding to get as far from here as possible. The only reason why I haven't returned to the mountain is that I've fought the Kyubi before.'**

Naruto's partners and his Fire type clones were also feeling the effects of a Pokemon using Roar. All six of them were shaking in their metaphoric boots. Only the fact that the attack wasn't directed at them kept the six from bolting into the woods.

Naruto meanwhile was doing his best not to pass out from the chakra drain that transforming into a hundred foot form took. He could only imagine what it would have been like if he had turned into a Groundon or Kyrouge with their natural abilities coming into play. Gamabunta was staring at him wearily and he didn't want to think about what would happen if the big guy decided to attack him in retaliation. Although considering how far he threw him with just his voice, the toad attacking him had really long odds right now. It seemed though that Gamabunta was of like mind as he looked over his shoulder and snorted to himself before muttering something about Jiraiya being an idiot before like his fellow toad before him dispersed in a cloud of smoke.

Sighing in relief, Naruto allowed his transformation to drop and then dropped to his knees before falling flat on his face. Thirty seconds later, he was surrounded by his partners who had rushed over and were now looking at him in concern.

Too tired to wonder how Charmeleon had made it across the river, Naruto smiled at them and raised his head as he said "Hey guys. Sorry about scaring you. If you don't mind, I think I'm going to pass out now." His eyes rolled into the back of his head before it dropped to the ground. As Naruto's Fire type clones disappeared in their own smoke clouds, his partners looked at each other wondering whether or not they should take him to the hospital or just lean him against a tree and continue training against each other. Ivysaur finally just sighed and lifted Naruto up with his vines and walked over towards the still standing trees and leaned him up against a tree trunk before rejoining his friends and began battling to get some more much needed experience.

Scene Change: Next Day: Konoha Hospital

Hinata looked up from her lunch when a flash of blue appeared in her room. Her confused eyes landed on the figure on the end of her bed and wondered how it had gotten there. If she had to describe it, the closest she could come to naming what kind of animal it was would be a cat. A purple cat with large ears, a red gem on its forehead, and a tail that split into two at its end.

Hinata had just enough time to think 'a nekomata?" before the cat opened its mouth and said "Hey Hinata, how are you feeling today?"

Hinata blinked in shock before she said "Um, I'm alright. Em, How do you know my name?"

The Espeon chuckled and said "Why wouldn't I know your name? You were a classmate of the boss after all." Hinata looked confused before her eyes lit up in recognition but the Sun Pokemon had already began speaking again. "Hey listen Hinata, boss knows how boring staying in the hospital can be. So if you want, I can teleport us to where boss and his partners are training for a bit so that way you don't die from boredom in here."

Hinata blinked before looking towards the door and said "Ano, what about the nurses? They'll be worried if they come to check up on me and I'm not here."

The Espeon shook its head and said "I've already talked to them. They said as long as you don't do anything to strenuous and I have you back in here by seven, then they're willing to let me watch over you for today. So, wanna go see what the boss is doing?"

Hinata bit her lip for a moment before she nodded. The Espeon clone gave its own nod before it walked over to her right hand and said "Right then, place your hand on me and we'll get going then." Once Hinata had did as asked, a flash of blue surrounded them before they disappeared from the room.

Scene Change: Waterfall 15

The Espeon clone and Hinata reappeared on the edge of the clearing opposite of where the trees had fallen down with Hinata still in a sitting down position with her back already up against a tree. She wasn't too concerned about wondering at that kind of accuracy or even the fact that yes, she had in fact just been teleported. Her attention instead was drawn to fights that were both on and off the river.

On the river, a Blastoise and Feraligator were standing on the water trading blows and doing their best to knock their opponent either under the water or out of the river entirely. Meanwhile, Naruto's partners were engaged in a three on three match against Pokemon that looked like they were made out of rocks. The sound of electricity sparking drew Hinata's attention over to an area further up the river where a group of over a hundred clones transformed as Electric types were currently putting on the miniature light show of the decade.

Her attention was drawn back to the river where the two Water types had been fighting when she caught sight of a smoke cloud out of the corner of her eye. As she turned her head back to see what happened, she saw the Feraligator become covered in smoke before it dispersed revealing Naruto. He looked over towards Hinata and waved before another clone appeared and turned into a Blaziken and the original turned into a Lucario. The two gave each other a fighter's bow before they suddenly rushed each other and began a melee fight that looked like a match between two Taijutsu masters.

Her attention once again shifted as the Espeon clone laid down next to her and said "I'm glad I'm not out there fighting boss right now. The things he can do when he's a Lucario are ridiculous. Nope, I'm perfectly fine just laying here and watching everyone else have to work."

The clone chuckled at the last bit before it began to purr as Hinata absentmindedly began to pet it. Hinata smiled down at it before looking back to the clones who were still sparking like crazy and frowned as she asked "Um, Naruto?"

"Hm?"

"Ano, what are those clones doing over there?"

The clone opened its eyes and looked towards where Hinata pointed before giving a yawn and said "They're working on an Electric attack chain. You see, whatever we clones learn, Boss and the rest of us learn when one of us dispels. So he has us learn how to perform Attack chains so that way he doesn't have to spend years doing it himself and he doesn't hurt himself too much learning the attacks. He usually joins us once we have the first link down though."

Hinata looked confused and said "What do you mean? What are attack chains and links?"

The clone explained just how hard it actually is for Naruto to learn how to fully fight like a Pokemon. By the end of it she was in even more awe of Naruto. She didn't think she could spend so long trying to learn a set of attacks, even if she could somehow make clones to help speed up the process.

As she watched the clones continue to try and learn how to perform a Thunder Shock, she bit her lip as she remembered why Naruto and his partners would be out here by themselves training in secret. Turning to the clone beside her she said "Ano, Naruto? Who are you fighting in the finals?"

The clone looked up at her out of the corner of its left eye and gave a short growl as it spat out "Neji."

Hinata blinked before a concerned look passed over her face as she stuttered out "N-Neji? B-but, he was the r-rookie of the year last year. D-do you t-think that you can w-win?"

The clone snorted and said "Trust me Hinata. You don't have to worry about us. We could probably take him right now, but when we utterly humiliate him for what he did to you we want everyone to see it. Once we're done with him, he's going to wish that he was never selected as your opponent."

Hinata blushed as she looked at the clone in confusion and said "W-what do you mean?"

The clone turned its head and locked Hinata's eyes with its own as it said "Hinata, what Neji did to you was not only wrong, it was cruel as well, borderline evil in fact. So when the finals come up, we're going to give him a taste of his own medicine. We'll see what his fate has to say when it's four against one and lightning is dropping from the sky."

Hinata swallowed at the look the clone was giving her and stuttered out "P-please don't kill him."

The clone narrowed its eyes and said "No promises Hinata. We won't actively try to kill him, but since we're going to be beating some sense into that thick skull of his, it could be close. Although I personally don't think it'll take much to beat him, I know boss is looking forward to beating the pulp out of him for what he did to you."

Hinata blushed again and said "Just promise me you'll be careful. The Gentle Fist style is not something to take lightly and I'd hate to see what it would do to you when you're transformed."

The clone nodded before it suddenly turned its head to see that its creator had once again beaten his opponent and was now watching his partners finish their fights untransformed. Looking towards them he saw that while Ivysaur and Wartortle seemed to have finished their fights with ease, this time it was Charmeleon who was having a hard time fighting his Rock type opponent. That is until he scored a direct hit with his glowing tail. Chuckling at the resulting victory dance Wartortle and Charmeleon did together while Ivysaur merely rolled his eyes, the Espeon clone closed its eyes and laid its head back down on its paws. Hinata continued to watch on with a bit lip even as she once again began petting the clone again.

Time Skip: One Week Later

A flash of blue appeared before it died down a second later to reveal Hinata and an Abra with a picnic basket in it's lap. Hinata had just enough time to orient herself before a blue blur suddenly rushed her and wrapped itself around her legs. Hinata smiled down at Wartortle who was chatting at her happily while Naruto and his other two partners walked over at a calmer pace.

Once they reached her, Naruto gave her a one armed hug in greetings before he bent down and grabbed the picnic basket. Gesturing over to the river bank he said "Well, shall we have lunch?" Hinata gave an enthusiastic nod and the five walked over to where they had started to have lunch each day.

The past week since Hinata had been allowed to leave the hospital for half days had been quite enjoyable for them all. Everyday, a clone would teleport Hinata from her hospital room and to the waterfall where Naruto and his partners would take a break and have lunch with Hinata before the Pokemon would go back to their back to back matches working on getting as much experience as possible from each fight. Naruto meanwhile would hang out with Hinata talking. Sometimes they just talked about the weather and current events, other times Hinata would explain to Naruto the finer points of the Gentle Fist style and what he could expect when he fought Neji.

Naruto in turn would explain the various strategies he came up with to get the maximum amount of use from the multitude of forms he could take and come up with ideas on how Hinata could adapt them to fit her and her team's own needs. He also would watch Hinata go through her forms and recommend changes that would help her make the Gentle Fist truly hers.

It wasn't just the two of them doing the talking and brainstorming though. Each of Naruto's Pokemon enjoyed being around Hinata and were determined to be able to have complete conversations with her. So after Naruto would call it a day on their training, they would sit around her and Naruto and say various words with Naruto translating until she got that word down. Slowly but surely, Hinata was beginning to learn the universal language of putting extremely subtle accentuations on parts of their names to communicate with each other that all Pokemon used. Currently she was able to understand about every one out of five words when they talked in complete sentences with her vocabulary improving daily.

Now they were all simply enjoying lunch on a blanket while having some sandwiches Naruto had made for them while his partners ate a variety of fruits that Naruto had discovered they liked through trial and error.

As they ate, Naruto suddenly sensed something and tensed before he shot to his feet and shot a kunai into the woods behind them before running through hand signs and called out "Kunai Shadow Clone Jutsu!" The one kunai turned into five hundred due to how much chakra Naruto put into the jutsu and they shot through the forest ripping into trees and bushes leaving everything pockmarked. Hinata looked up at Naruto in confusion even as she activated her Byakugan to try and find whatever it was that set Naruto off.

Naruto already had another kunai out as he shouted into the woods "I know you're still there! Come on out before I get serious."

A female ANBU wearing a cat mask revealed herself in one of the higher tree branches before she jumped down to the ground. Turning to look at the destruction Naruto's one jutsu had made, she said "Impressive Uzumaki. Not many people can sense us when we don't want to be found. Even fewer can use an attack like that in such a way."

Naruto frowned at the tone of voice the ANBU was speaking. He heard a lot of anger in those sentences. The weird thing though was that Naruto could tell she wasn't angry at him. Someone was probably having a really bad day right now. Putting it off as none of his business, he rubbed the back of his neck and said "Uh, thanks. Sorry about that by the way."

The ANBU waved the apology away before turning to look at him and said "The Hokage wants your presence at the tower. He told me that you would have a way to get there quickly and to stick with you."

Naruto frowned again before looking at Hinata and said "Sorry Hinata, looks like we're going to have to cut today short."

Hinata nodded and Naruto beckoned the ANBU over before recalling his partners. Hinata meanwhile quickly packed up the picnic that they didn't have a chance to finish. As soon as everything was ready, Naruto transformed into an Alakazam and placed a hand onto each female's shoulder and flashed away to Hinata's hospital room.

Scene Change: Hokage's Office

Twenty seconds after they left Waterfall 15, Naruto and the cat ANBU appeared in the Hokage's office in a flash of blue. Sarutobi looked up from the scroll he was reading and said "Ah, Naruto. Thank you for coming so soon. I'm afraid we have a situation that could potentially see the village in deep trouble. You have a few abilities that should level the playing field."

Naruto cocked his head in confusion and said "What do you mean Old Man?"

Sarutobi's eyes hardened as he said "Let us explain just what's going on."

'Us?' Naruto thought before he heard a semi familiar voice began speaking behind him.

"This morning the body of Gekko Hayate was discovered by an ANBU patrol on the rooftop of an apartment five blocks from the market district. He was killed by a wind jutsu."

Naruto spun around and pointed at the white haired pervert who was leaning against the locked door to the office. "What the hell is HE doing here?"

Sarutobi raised an eyebrow and said "Oh? So you know my student already?"

Naruto looked over his shoulder and said "Yeah, he's nothing but a big pervert." He then blinked and said "Wait what? Your student?"

"Hey! I'm not a big pervert! I'm a SUPER PERVERT!" Jiraiya said.

Naruto stared blankly at him and in a deadpanned voice said "You actually admit it."

Sarutobi chuckled as he said "Yes, it is something to get used to."

Naruto turned his head to look back over his shoulder again and shot his leader a look that all but screamed 'understatement of the century.' "Again I ask, what in the name of the ninth circle of hell is HE doing here?"

"HE is here because I'm the Hidden Leaf Village's spy master and I have information that could be critical to our survival."

Naruto's head slowly turned on his neck and he shot a look at Jiraiya that clearly showed that he wasn't believing him at all. Sarutobi sighed and said "Enough you two. Naruto, Jiraiya has brought me Intel that Orochimaru has formed his own village. One that you have already had some experience dealing with in the forest."

"Sound?"

"That is correct. However, we do not believe that it was a member of his village that killed Hayate. Like Jiraiya has said, Gekko was killed by a wind jutsu. This leads us to believe that it was a shinobi from the Hidden Sand Village. This is concerning because if the Sand has made an alliance with Orochimaru then the only thing that I can see him wanting out of such an alliance is the destruction of the Leaf. However, if an invasion does come, we at least have a very good idea when it will take place."

"The final exam." Naruto said. It made since after all. Orochimaru would want to attack when most of the attention was on the upcoming fights where dignitaries from some of the most influential countries were enjoying a good show. However, there was one thing he could not figure out. As Sarutobi nodded, he said "Why are you telling me all this Old Man? What use could I possibly serve that would warrant you telling me about this when common sense says that you would only tell your Jounin and ANBU?"

Sarutobi's eyes narrowed further as he said "Common sense does indeed say to keep this with the higher ranked shinobi. However, you are an exception to that. Your potential to create massive amounts of shadow clones and their own potential to transform into Pokemon and transport not only them but other people anywhere instantly will be highly useful when we have to defend the village. That's not counting the attacks you already know how to perform. I plan on taking full advantage of those facts. Naruto, from now to the final exam, I need you to cover as much ground in the village and the surrounding forest as inconspicuously as possible. When the invasion happens I want to be able to get our forces wherever they need to be as quickly as possible. Make sure you get the Hokage tower, the village gates, the hospital, the evacuation chambers in the mountain, ANBU headquarters, and especially everywhere you can around the Chunnin Arena. Also, I need you to prepare for a fight against Gaara. If the Sand Village is part of Orochimaru's plan to invade us, then you can bet that their jinchuriki is a big part of that plan. You've shown us that you can take away any advantages he has by hitting him with your water attacks. So if Gaara is mobilized I want you to make sure he doesn't become a threat to this village."

Naruto nodded and said "Understood. I know a few Pokemon I can turn into that won't be noticed by everyone else. And fighting Gaara shouldn't be too much of a problem. Worst comes to worst, I can always hose him down with about a hundred Hydro Pumps all at once."

Sarutobi nodded and gestured to the visible ANBU in the room and said "Good. Cat here will escort you to ANBU headquarters. She'll show you where the best places for Teleports are. After that make your clones to map out the city and then head back to your training grounds and continue your training. I want you to be able to use as many of these attacks of yours as possible when the invasion starts. Dismissed."

Naruto gave a crisp salute and said "Sir!" He then turned around and followed Cat out of the office.

Time Skip: One Week Later 12:30

Naruto quickly back flipped away and jumped back just as a glowing tail slammed down right where he had been standing a second ago. But Naruto didn't have time to relax. Even as the tail threw debris into the air, Naruto was already on the ground cart wheeling away from the blue lighting that was sent his way.

He barely caught sight of Hinata out of the corner of his eye as she started to spin forming a dome of chakra a second before a barrage of leaves slammed into it. He didn't have anymore time to be worried for her due to the fact that Charmeleon rushed him with claws glowing with a Shadow Claw attack. Naruto barely got a kunai imbued with a butt load of chakra up in front of his face which instantly clashed against the claws creating sparks and causing the kunai to blacken. Naruto's eyes closed by reflex due to the sparks and instantly regretted it when Charmeleon reared his head back and then slammed it into his stomach.

While it may not have been an actual Headbutt, the force of the attack did send Naruto skidding along the ground. Naruto poured chakra to his feet and stopped five feet away and responded by lifting his hand up and flicking the air in front of him as he shouted out "Aeroblast!"

Naruto was sure the modified attack would send Charmeleon flying and give him time to deal with Wartortle. Alas it was not to be, as Wartortle leapt in front of Charmeleon and shot a single bubble into the Aeroblast's path causing the two pockets of condensed air to explode on contact. Not bothering to take the time to curse Wartortle's timing, Naruto rushed him with his kunai forcing Wartortle to jump back towards Charmeleon or have his head cut. Then they did something that Naruto really wished they didn't.

With Charmeleon's head over Wartortle's shoulder, the two opened their mouths and sent out streams of water and fire right at him. The two streams made impact and the two Pokemon's eyes widened. They hadn't actually expected their attacks to hit their trainer. As the two traded looks of horror, they never saw the burnt and soaked log fall to the ground. One second later, they didn't see anything but black as Naruto chopped the back of their necks from behind them.

As two of his partners slumped to the ground, Naruto shook his head and thought 'They really should have known that I wouldn't have just stood there without a plan. Although to be fair, most people forget why the basics are the basics.' Turning to see how Hinata was doing showed that she and Ivysaur were still at it. Frowning slightly at how Hinata seemed to be more out of breath than she should be, he thought 'Looks like I'll need to give her another healing session after she finishes fighting. And I don't think she should fight again after this. Even if Ivysaur is going easy on her, I should probably never have set this fight up. According to the nurses there could still be some lingering damage even with all of the healing sessions we've given her. Still, at least she no longer needs to stay in the hospital at night. I'm just glad that her father allowed us to continue bringing her here.'

He was brought out of his thoughts by the last Rattata clone dispelling which gave him the last group of memories of the clones mapping out village. For the past week, he had clones transformed as Rattatas, and Pidgeys traveling throughout the village and the surrounding forest. Naruto could now confidently say that he knew every building, underground passage, and tree in the village and forest surrounding it for five miles in each direction.

Naruto added the memories to his mental map of the village before he looked over to where Hinata and Ivysaur were still fighting and said "Alright guys, lets take a break."

The two nodded and walked over to the nearby trees while Naruto knelt down next to Charmeleon and Wartortle and placed his hands on their heads as they became coated in bluish green chakra. A few seconds later the two Pokemon's eyes squinted before opening and the two sat up rubbing their heads.

"Oh, my head. Gee Naruto, you think you hit us hard enough?" Wartortle asked as he looked around and saw Hinata and Ivysaur talking to each other by the trees.

Naruto shrugged and said "I hit no harder than someone else well if they ever do the same thing I did. Just be glad we were working on my ability to fight untransformed and I wasn't a Fighting type. Now come on, we're going to take a quick break and then I want to work with you guys on evolving. I'm pretty sure you guys will be ready to evolve either by the end of today or tomorrow."

The two nodded and followed their trainer as they rejoined Hinata and Ivysaur. As Naruto's hands turned the particular bluish green that came with a Synthesis, he placed them on Hinata's chest and said "How are you holding up Hinata?"

Hinata seemed to lose all tension in her body as the modified attack did its job and said "I'm doing alright. Ivysaur was very helpful in learning the timing for Rotation."

Naruto nodded as he finished healing the slight strain of her organs that the fight took before sitting down next to her and said "Why don't you just watch for right now Hinata? I want to get these three evolved as soon as possible."

Hinata nodded and the five settled down for a quick five minutes before Naruto stood back up and made a follow me gesture to his partners and led them a safe distance away.

Time Skip: 27 Hours Later

White light shone through the clearing as Hinata and a transformed Naruto watched his three partners' forms grow. Hinata had a look of wonder on her face while Naruto was smirking.

'About time. I was beginning to think I'd have to go Lucario on their asses. Even if it would have a problem with height, I could at least _really_ make them work for a win.'

Flashback: One Hour Ago

"Alright troops! Now that we've gotten our little warm up done, it's time to go pro." Naruto was currently pacing in front of his partners as they laid on the ground panting from a straight five and a half hour battle against Naruto's Fighting type clones where they could only use hand to hand combat. Naruto felt merciful enough to allow Ivysaur use his vines instead of his legs but was sadistic enough to tell Wartortle that he couldn't hide in his shell to take a hit and Charmeleon couldn't use his tail. The thought of possibly fighting an even longer match with whatever rules Naruto made were terrifying the three Pokemon but they were more angry than scared.

"That was just a warm up? What do you want us to do now? Only use our heads? Fine, I'll Skull Bash all your clones and then smash you yourself Naruto!" Wartortle shouted.

"No, he's probably going to make us fight the same way, just up against twenty times more clones." Ivysaur said.

Charmeleon snorted even as he shot his trainer a glare and said "Nah, he's probably going to have us use only one move AND fight against sixty clones."

Naruto gave a truly evil smirk as he stopped pacing and the three Pokemon felt shivers go down their spines while Hinata started to slowly back away from her best friend. "Nope," He said "Just me in an all out three against one. Transform!"

The three Pokemon tensed wondering what they would be fighting next and hoping it wouldn't be a Lucario. Then the smoke cleared and they were wishing it was a Lucario since they were now officially screwed.

The figure Naruto turned into was easily a foot shorter than all three Pokemon. It stood on two legs which were black and had a dark blue tail. Its torso was black on top with a lighter shade of blue at its bottom. The arms were also blue with some kind of bone covering its wrists. The head had two small horns on top with two black flaps underneath and was mostly blue except for the black 'burglar's mask' around its eyes.

"Oh shit." Charmeleon said as Naruto's smirk grew.

"Why couldn't it have been a Lucario? Then at least we would be too small to hit." Wartortle groaned.

"It's official. Our trainer is a cruel and heartless bastard." Ivysaur said earning nods from the other two.

The reason for their complaining was currently a Riolu, the baby form of Lucario and one of the few Fighting types that was actually smaller than the three Pokemon instead of the other way around swinging the advantage even further to Naruto's side who had the most experience fighting in hand to hand thanks to all his clones. Add in that Riolus could use the same aura as their adult forms and you had one _BAD_ situation. The only things going for the three Pokemon were the facts that it was three on one and none of them were directly weak against fighting types.

These thoughts only had a split second to flit through their heads before Naruto shouted "Begin!" and disappeared in a flash of blue before appearing over Ivysaur's head already in an axe kick. Ivysaur's head slammed into the ground as Charmeleon tried to swipe at his transformed trainer only for the little guy to grab his arm and use it to pull himself into kicking the Fire type's head back. Pushing off into a back flip, Naruto landed with one hand over the other with a glowing blue orb between them before he shot his Aura Sphere right into the path of Wartortle's Water Gun. The sphere passed through the spray unharmed and slammed into Wartortle even as Naruto cart wheeled away from the Water attack.

Looking at his three partners who were shakily rising to their feet, Naruto shook his head and said "You guys need to focus. I was just able to take each of you out with one hit each. That is NOT supposed to happen. Now focus!"

Charmeleon growled as his battle side took over and rushed his trainer with his claws glowing and began swiping at Naruto who started to backpedal even as he redirected the strikes by deflecting Charmeleon's forearms off of the bone pads on his wrist or just flat out dodging. Every swing that Naruto avoided added more and more to Charmeleon's frustration until he finally just thought 'Screw it.' and opened his mouth and shouted "Fire Blast!"

The five pronged star of fire roared out of Charmeleon's mouth towards Naruto at point blank range causing the transformed blonde's eyes to widen before he bent his knees and jumped up and back that allowed the still growing blast to pass over him in an Aura enhanced leap that took him fifteen feet in the air.

Seeing a chance to get some payback, Ivysaur launched a barrage of Razor Leafs while Wartortle shot an Ice Beam at the figure who had just reached the climax of his jump. The two attacks slammed into Naruto before he was covered in smoke and a cut and frozen log dropped down to the ground. When the three Pokemon saw this, they scrambled to form a triangle formation back to back to back while they looked around trying to find their trainer.

The tactic was sound, but while the Pokemon were looking left, right, and up, they forgot one direction that they couldn't see through: down. About a minute after Naruto disappeared, two paws erupted out of the ground under Wartortle and grabbed his feet before pulling him into the ground until only his head remained aboveground.

Wartortle had one second to look surprised before he turned into a barbarian's decoration. Then he began struggling and cursing Kakashi for teaching his trainer the Double Decapitation jutsu as the Riolu blasted out of the ground and aura bitch slapped Charmeleon in the side of the head sending the Fire type flying into a tree. Naruto turned towards Ivysaur only to have a vine already less than an inch from his foot.

As the vine wrapped around his ankle, Naruto thought 'Oh boy.' Ivysaur grinned at him in a most feral manner before he whipped the vine up and then back down slamming Naruto into the ground. Not finished with just one hit, Ivysaur whipped the vine behind him sending Naruto towards the ground there in a high arc before Ivysaur began spinning the vine around himself in the air as fast as he could.

As Naruto was forced to ride the carousel from hell, he managed to fight the centrifugal force enough to move his head to where he was seeing Ivysaur and shouted "Ivysaur, I'm only giving you one warning. Stop spinning me around or you'll regret it."

If anything, Ivysaur began spinning his trainer faster adding onto the G's that were on Naruto's body. Naruto frowned and thought 'I warned him.' Naruto opened his mouth again and began Screeching causing Ivysaur to wince at the sound that was ten times worst than nails on a chalkboard. He unintentionally let the vine's grip loose sending Naruto flying who quickly back flipped on the ground before cart wheeling away to avoid the Energy Ball that Ivysaur shot at him and countered with an Aura Sphere that was just as equally avoided by his partner. Coming out of his own cart wheel that heavily involved the use of his vines, Ivysaur opened his bulb and shouted "Flash!"

Naruto slammed his eyes shut as the organic version of a flash bomb went off and was instantly made to pay for it as a glowing tail slammed into his head even as an extremely hard head slammed into his back sending Naruto flying from his three Pokemon.

Once Naruto came close to the ground after his absurdly long flight, he tucked into a ball and rolled with the impact reducing the damage. Coming back on his feet, Naruto spun around and shouted "Earthquake!" Naruto gave a quick but heavy hop which resulted in the ground cracking away from him as his partners felt an earthquake form that felt like it should shake the whole continent for a good five minutes. As the ground stopped shaking under them, the three Pokemon shakily got to their feet even as they all sent looks of disbelief at Naruto who was grinning at them like the cat who got the canary.

"Oh come now, surely you didn't expect me to NOT learn that one?" Naruto said shaking his head as he continued. "If you're asking yourselves how I learned that without your knowledge, which I know you are, the answer is that I sent most of the clones that had finished mapping out the village to the Land of Wind as Pidgeots so that they could learn the move without tearing down a town in the process."

Meanwhile, Hinata was at her usual observation spot at the edge of the forest and was having trouble picking her jaw up off the ground.

'Miniature suns, tsunamis, and now earthquakes? And he's currently learning how to make lightning storms as well. Just what kind of world did those three come from where these were created every day in battles?'

She saw Naruto get into a fighting stance where his feet were together and his right hand was held behind his back as he held out his left hand out in front and made the 'come here' sign. The three Pokemon traded looks with each other before all three opened their mouths and fired. From Charmeleon came the blue fire of a Dragon Rage while Wartortle shot an Ice Beam. Ivysaur's attack came a second later as he gathered sunlight before letting rip with his Solar Beam that Naruto had let him learn early thanks to Dex's library of TMs.

The unconventional Tri Attack slammed into Naruto who had crossed his arms at the last second and took the attacks head on sending smoke and debris flying. Hinata gasped in horror and quickly activated her Byakugan and sighed in relief as she saw Naruto still standing. As the smoke cleared giving her a better view though, it showed that he was doing so just barely. Naruto had Endured the hit and now from Hinata's position she could clearly see the grin that was like a mad scientist's before he let loose with his ultimate WMDD. (Weapon of Mass Destruction and Doom)

"Reversal!"

Naruto was surrounded by an Aura shell that did the work of mimicking an attack he hadn't learned yet as three bursts of light launched themselves from Naruto's battered body before the attack that was powered up to the max due to Naruto being practically dead on his feet slammed into the three Pokemon sending them rolling and skipping over the ground while Naruto panted. Taking ten seconds to get his breath back while his partners once again tried to get to their feet, Naruto closed his eyes before he softly said "Synthesis." His body became covered in a bluish green glow as the modified healing move began bringing Naruto back from the collapsing black tunnel that was unconsciousness. Opening his eyes, he saw Ivysaur doing the same to himself and then pushing the move into his comrades' bodies in the same manner that Naruto did and knew in that instant that at least one of his partners was ready for evolution. The only question was if the other two were ready as well.

He was brought out of his thoughts by his partners rushing towards him completely healed thanks to Ivysaur. Grinning at them, Naruto said "Round two boys." and disappeared in a flash of blue as he used his aura to travel faster than his partners could track with their eyes.

End Flashback

The four had fought for half an hour more before all three natural Pokemon suddenly stopped and as one began glowing after a moment of looking like they just realized something. Naruto's smirk grew as he thought back on that. 'I half expected Ivysaur to evolve the instant after he healed the others. Guess they didn't realize it since they were still in 'battle mode'. Still, it is weird that Charmeleon evolved right away back in Wave but didn't here.'

He was brought out of his thoughts as the glowing died down. Dropping his transformation so that he could take Dex out of his inner pocket, he flipped it open and pointed it at his three partners and said "Dex, analyze." He knew what forms they took but definitely wanted to know what Dex had to say about them and their stats.

First up was Ivysaur's new form, which looked a lot like his previous forms except bigger and with a tree now that had pink and white leaves at the top. He was roughly six foot seven counting the tree.

"Venusaur: Seed Pokemon. By spreading the broad petals of its flower and catching the sun's rays, it fills its body with power. As a result, it is more powerful in the summertime. HP: 3, Attack: 3, Defense: 3, Sp. Attack: 4, Sp. Defense: 4, Speed: 4. Ability: Overgrow."

Next up was Charmeleon, who seemed to have changed the most. He had grown an even two feet and looked like some kind of orange dragon with the ever-present flame on his tail. His orange wings had a blue coloring on their inside and he also had two horns on his head instead of one.

"Charizard: Flame Pokemon. If Charizard becomes furious the flame at the tip of its tail flares up in a light blue shade. Breathing intense, hot flames, it can melt almost anything. Its breath inflicts terrible pain on enemies. HP: 3, Attack: 4, Defense: 3, SP. Attack: 5, Sp. Defense: 3, Speed: 4. Ability: Blaze."

Wartortle was next and probably had the most 'expected' evolved form. Like the other two, Wartortle had grown, adding another two feet to his height. His tail had went from fluffy to a tail one would actually find natural on an amphibian/reptile creature Sticking out of his shell were what looked like two barrels for really big guns. His head had become more angular and his once rather large ears were now more proportional to the size of his head giving way to the rather large jaw he now sported.

"Blastoise: Shellfish Pokemon. It deliberately makes itself heavy so it can withstand the recoil of the water jets it fires. These jets are fired by the rocket cannons on its shell and are capable of punching holes through thick steel. HP: 3, Attack: 4, Defense: 4, Sp. Attack: 4, Sp. Defense: 4, Speed: 3. Ability: Torrent."

Naruto flipped Dex closed and absentmindedly put the Pokedex back inside his vest as his partners studied themselves. Hinata meanwhile was staring at the three Pokemon in fascination even as she tried to figure out what all of those stats had meant. To her, it just sounded like information from some board game.

She was brought out of her confused thoughts by Charizard stretching out his new wings and with a roar blasted off the ground throwing up dust clouds as he took flight for the first time and began testing his wings' limits by first doing quick laps around the clearing and then starting to do aerial acrobatics. As he did this, Hinata found that she had something else to be confused about.

Turning to Naruto, she asked "How can he already know how to fly like that if this is his first time?"

Naruto shrugged as he kept his eyes on the now hybrid Fire/Flying type and said "Instinct I guess."

Charizard flew around for another five minutes before landing in front of his trainer and the only other human who could interpret the Pokemon language with any semblance of accuracy. Gesturing with his head, he said "This is amazing! I can't believe how free I feel now! Hey, Hinata, want a ride?"

This was all said in a rush and Naruto and his partners roared in laughter at Charizard's childish excitement and the need to show off. Naruto couldn't exactly blame him though, after all, flying was really awesome. Especially flying at speeds that broke the sound barrier. Naruto grinned at that last thought as he remembered the memories his clones sent back showing the ground below shooting past him faster than anything he ever saw.

Shaking his head from those thoughts he nudged Hinata who looked unsure and said "Go ahead. You'll enjoy it, I promise."

Charizard bent down to where it was easy for Hinata to climb on board in front of his wings. Hinata shot one last look at Naruto before she slowly climbed on. Naruto meanwhile recalled his other two Pokemon before he turned into a Charizard himself. As the two opened their wings for flight, Naruto said "Hold on tight Hinata."

The two Hybrids lifted off as gently as possible and took off out of the clearing to many shouts of joy and amazement from the Hyuga Heiress.

Scene Change: Valley of the End: Two Days Before Final Exam

The sky growled as a freak lightning storm began forming in the once cloudless sky. As a couple of Leaf shinobi who were part of a border patrol nearby sent to investigate landed on the head of the first Hokage, they saw figures that they couldn't quite make out but looked like animals standing on the river banks of both sides before lightning shot down from the storm clouds in multiple bursts and slammed into the river. The two shinobi traded looks with each other both wondering what was going on. They were brought from their thoughts as shouts of "Thunder!" rang out and more bolts of lightning shot out and headed towards the creatures.


	17. Final Exams: Naruto's Thunder

17. Final Exams: Naruto's Thunder

Story Start: Chunnin Exams Stadium: Five Minutes To First Fight

There was only one word to describe the Chunnin Stadium right now: Packed. Everyone who was able to secure a ticket was in their seats talking excitedly about the upcoming matches. The predominate topic of their discussions was the fight of the Last Uchiha against Gaara of the Desert. A slight second was the match of the Prodigy of the Hyuga clan against the village's 'demon child.' A child that everyone could see wasn't on the field. The contestant from Sound was missing as well, but everyone was more worried about the fact that young Sasuke didn't seem to be there either.

Up in the Kage booth, Sarutobi's eyes flitted around hoping to find sight of the blond or any kind of animal that really stuck out. He was drawn back to where he was sitting by the appearance of the Kazekage approaching. Smiling at his fellow village leader, Sarutobi said "Ah, Kazekage, good to see you could make it. I hope the trip here was pleasant."

The blue robed Kage nodded his head as he sat down and said "It was pleasant enough my friend. But it's a good thing these exams were held here. I imagine the desert would not be too kind on someone of your age. Maybe you should think about finding a replacement soon. Heavens knows that you've been at war with the paperwork for long enough."

Sarutobi laughed and said "True, but don't count me out just yet, I still have a few more years at least. Although to be honest, I want to spend at least five of them doing nothing but laying around the house and teaching my young grandson the wonders of calligraphy."

"Indeed." The Kazekage said before looking down into the arena and frowned from behind the veil he was wearing. Sarutobi saw this and asked "Is something wrong?"

The Sand Kage tilted his head and said "It appears that we are missing some contestants. Wasn't there supposed to be nine of them? I only see six."

"Hm, we've lost all forms of contact with Dosu. It is believed that he is dead though. And since he's with Kakashi, who knows if Sasuke will show up in time for his match or not. But I'm sure that Naruto will be here soon enough." 'Knowing him, he's going to make quite an entrance when he does get here.'

He was brought out of his thoughts by pillars of fire erupting out of the ground like geysers in the arena down below startling everyone in the arena. The flames reached as high as the Kage booth before they died down leaving everyone looking at the holes they left wondering what was going on.

Scene Change: Cavern Under Chunnin Arena: Two Minutes To First Fight

Naruto was currently underground in a cavern that held water for any competent water user to find and use in their battles during the exams. The cavern was about five feet underground and was roughly half full with water with walkways leading to subterranean tunnels for maintenance and to repair the ceiling. Naruto was at that moment looking up into one of the holes in the ceiling where there was only six inches of stone instead of five feet to make it easier for the fighters. Naruto knew that said hole was also drilled into leaving even more holes in the first hole where, if it wasn't covered in dirt, you could see sunlight. The hole also looked like a grown man could fit inside making him wonder just how often this place was actually repaired.

Pushing those thoughts to the back of his mind, Naruto crossed his fingers and focused his chakra. Eleven clones popped into existence as Naruto said "Alright guys, show time's in one minute. Lets give these people an entrance to really talk about."

The clones nodded and each headed towards a different hole before each of them made a hand sign and shouted "Transform!" Twelve smoke clouds later, large armor plated rhino like creatures stood on top of the water. The Rhyperiors looked up towards the tops of their holes before as one opened their mouths and shouted out "Flamethrower!"

The over powered flames roared up the holes and began melting their tops. As the white hot flames continued to pour out of their mouths, the Rhyperiors' carapaces protected them from the molten rock that fell on top of them. Ten seconds after they started, the flames broke through the surface and roared upwards into the open sky in the arena.

The Rhyperiors let the flame go on for about twenty more seconds before they let the flames die down. Dropping their transformations, Naruto created thirty more clones making the total of blondes in the cavern forty two. Then as one, they all transformed. When the smoke cleared, the original twelve were all Psychic types with the original being a Mewtwo while all of the other clones were various Water, Fire, and Electric types that could fit through the holes they had made.

The Psychic clones' eyes began glowing blue as a blue shell of psychic power formed over them and the other clones. Naruto gestured up to the holes and the clones began shooting up in a display of Naruto's command of their inner magic.

Up in the arena, everyone shouted in surprise as fast moving blurs shot up the holes created by the geysers of fire. Those shouts of surprise turned into ones of awe as the figures arranged themselves into a large circle over the arena and the Fire types let loose streams of fire into the air that were followed by streams of water by the Water types and bolts of electricity by the Electric types. The streams of energy met in one spot over the buildings and an explosion roared out its entrance sending every cheering at the display.

Up in the Kage booth, Sarutobi smirked and thought 'Only Naruto.'

After the explosion, the Psychic types had quickly brought them and their charges to the ground where all but the original dropped their transformations. The cheering of the crowd died down quite a bit as they saw that the figures were actually clones of the resident jinchuriki. As the original looked around the stadium and saw the villagers muttering to themselves and pointing at the clones he sighed and thought 'So much for them warming up to me with that. Oh well.'

He quickly dispelled all of the clones making the mutterings increase as the various shinobi in the stands wondered how he could seemingly waste all the chakra it took to create the clones and then just dispel them like that. Looking to the proctor of the final exam, he forced himself not to flinch at the sight of the senbon chewing proctor which reminded him that there was more at stake today than just becoming Chunin.

"I'm not too late am I?" Naruto asked.

The Proctor shook his head and said "No, you have about a minute before the exam starts. Now drop the transformation and get in line. The Hokage is about to speak."

Naruto shrugged before doing as told. As he stepped into place beside Neji, he said "An interesting display failure. But interesting does not make genius. You are still fated to lose against me."

Naruto snorted and shot him a look of contempt but didn't say anything since Sarutobi had stood up and was now giving a speech to the masses.

"Welcome ladies and gentlemen! To the fiftieth bi-annual Chunnin Exams held here in the Hidden Leaf Village! We will now begin the final round between the candidates who advanced in the preliminaries. Now sit back, and enjoy the show!"

The crowd roared as the proctor took a folded up paper out of his vest and said "There's been a slight change of the lineup. Please take note of it and double check who and when you are fighting."

Naruto noticed that Dosu was no longer on the lineup and his eyes briefly shot around the arena wondering if he was going to be part of the invasion with his teammates. He was brought out of his thoughts of how to counter the team if they did end up being part of the invasion by the Proctor who if Naruto remembered

correctly was called Genma.

"Alright, everyone who is not fighting first head up to the observation deck. The other two stay down here and get in position in front of me."

The other participants left leaving only Neji and Naruto in front of the Proctor. Naruto took one last look around the arena before he focused on Neji as Genma rose his hand and said "First match: Neji Hyuga vs Naruto Uzumaki! Begin!"

Up in the stands, Hinata, who was sitting with the rest of her clan said "Father."

"Yes daughter?" Hiashi asked in a stoic voice.

"Whatever you and Hanabi do, don't activate your Byakugan during this fight."

Hiashi and his younger daughter looked at Hinata in confusion but the heiress provided no explanation and continued looking down into the arena.

Genma jumped back to get out of the way, but all Neji and Naruto did was stare at each other for a moment. But as Naruto's hand began drifting toward his Pokeballs to let his partners out, Neji said "You should just give up now. If you try and fight me, then the only thing you will accomplish is your humiliating defeat. After all, it is your fate to lose to me."

Naruto snorted and said "Big words from a school yard bully. If anyone should forfeit, it should be you Neji. I'm giving you one chance to yield before I bring the elements themselves down on you."

Neji scoffed and said "You'll bring the elements down on me? What kind of arrogant statement is that? Just stop your posturing now and admit defeat. You know you cannot go against your fate."

Naruto sighed and muttered under his breath "Well, I tried." He then took a chakra laced jump back getting space from Neji as he landed twenty feet away and said as he grabbed his Pokeballs in between his fingers and hit their buttons "Don't say I didn't warn you Neji. Come on out guys!" Naruto tossed the balls up in the air where they expanded before opening up sending their red beams of light down to the ground before flying back to Naruto. As the three Pokemon took form, the crowd began muttering to itself wondering what kinds of demons the Jinchuriki had called to his side.

The Pokemon meanwhile oriented themselves before they caught sight of Neji and began growling at him. Naruto smirked at Neji and said "Before we begin Neji, let me show you just how pathetic your fate crap really is. Transform!"

Smoke hid Naruto's form from view for a moment before it dispersed revealing him as a Mewtwo again. Neji scoffed and was about to make a comment before he suddenly stiffened as a blue glow surrounded him while Naruto's eyes glowed blue and he stretched out his right arm with his 'fingers' pinched together.

"Know the futility of fighting against a Psychic type." Naruto said as he lifted his hand and causing Neji to rise in the air as well. Naruto paid no attention to all the cries of shock and fear from the villagers as he spread his fingers out forcing Neji to go spread eagled and grunt in pain.

Naruto kept him spread out like that for about five seconds before he made a careless gesture with his arm and sent Neji flying towards the wall where the contestants entered the arena from. Neji slammed into the wall right next to the entrance tunnel and slumped to the ground.

As Neji shook his head and tried to get back on his feet, up in the Kage booth, a gleam appeared in the Kazekage's eye as he said "Oh? He can use telekinesis? That must come in handy."

"Hm, I did not realize he had learned that ability. I thought the only things he could do as a Psychic type were teleporting and locating presences." Sarutobi said as he arched an eyebrow.

"Teleporting you say?" The Kazekage asked with the gleam in his eye growing.

Sarutobi nodded and said "Yes, quite a useful skill. So long as he has been there before, he can be anywhere in no time at all."

"Interesting." his counterpart said lowly as he looked back towards the now untransformed blond.

Naruto meanwhile had dropped his transformation and turned to Charizard. Grinning he said "Let there be light."

Charizard gave a grin as well before he looked up and focused on the sun. In seconds, the sun began putting out a lot more sunlight than before making the arena even brighter and warmer. Turning to Venusaur, Naruto said "Have at him."

Neji stumbled to his feet before it suddenly grew brighter for some reason. Activating his Byakugan so that way he could keep an eye on Naruto, he looked up into the sky and wondered if a cloud had been in front of the sun for a while and it just left. He was brought out of his thoughts by Naruto who shouted "Hey Neji! Stay focused! It's no fun if I beat you in less than five moves!" Neji scowled but his eyes widened when he saw the strange green creature open its mouth and shout out something before a bright yellow beam of light rushed right at him.

Neji quickly jumped to the side avoiding the beam only to have to dodge another immediately after that and then another one after that. When Venusaur fired a fourth beam in eight seconds, Neji started running along the wall avoiding that and the other beams that followed leaving a path of busted walls as he tried to stay ahead of the Solar Beams that seemed determined to run him to the ground and finish him off before he even made one move against Naruto.

Just as Neji had reached the half way point in his dash along the wall and he thought he had the timing down good enough to attempt a dash at the strange creature, he noticed the sun dim back to what it normally shined at. Before he could wonder what that meant for the battle, a barrage of leaves launched themselves at him as Naruto began doing hand signs.

"Razor Leaf Shadow Clone Barrage!"

Neji's eyes widened at the sight of the fifty sharp leaves turning into five hundred. Thinking quickly, Neji decided that he didn't want to show off his best move yet and so began climbing up the wall that he was up against reaching fifteen feet just in time to avoid the highest leaves. Unfortunately, as he took his next step up, a blue lightning bolt slammed into the arena wall one step ahead of him and before he could change his course his foot hit the ice patch that had appeared causing him to slip and fall off the wall.

Neji shifted his body and rolled as soon as he hit the ground only to get slammed back into the wall by a blast of water out of Blastoise's cannons that he had no chance of dodging properly even if he did see it coming when he fell. Blastoise kept the pressure in his Hydro Cannon strong for ten seconds before dropping the attack. Neji had exactly five seconds to get to his feet and try to charge the group of three Pokemon and their trainer before Blastoise shouted out an attack and the water molecules in the air multiplied forming a wave as tall as the arena wall that rushed to Neji's oncoming position before crashing halfway to him and sent its water rushing at him twice as fast.

Seeing no choice via dodging the massive amounts of water heading his way, Neji began spinning while pouring chakra out of his Tenketsu. As the water was one second away from slamming into him, a spinning dome of chakra formed and the water crashed against the barrier before the force of the water pushed the dome back towards the wall where it began grinding against it.

Up in the stands, Hiashi's eyes widened as he said "Rotation? A Branch member learned Rotation?"

Hinata shrugged and said "It's not very surprising father. Just because none of the Branch members are taught Rotation, it doesn't mean they can't reverse engineer it."

Hiashi stared at his daughter as he wondered just what the blonde down on the floor had done to his daughter before shaking his head and looked back down towards the fight. Hanabi spared a quick glance and a small frown at her sister as well before also looking back down. The elders meanwhile were still in shock at what Neji just did.

Back on the field, Naruto waited as all of the water drained down into the holes he and his clones had made going a long way towards filling the reservoir to its brim and flooding the connecting tunnels. As the water finished draining leaving a muddy battle ground in its wake, Naruto arched an eyebrow as he saw Neji back at the wall with a depression in the wall itself.

'Huh, I guess Hinata was right in thinking he would learn that move. Oh well, that means we can just have more 'fun' with him. I'm actually glad he learned that. If he was just crushed by being between the wave and the wall then it wouldn't have been enough of a punishment. Not to mention the fact that Charizard hasn't had his turn yet. Speaking of which."

Neji was panting from the strain keeping a Rotation going while under attack on all sides by over three tons of water pressure. Then he saw the last creature flap its wings and launch itself at him nearly as fast as those light beams the first creature launched. He barely got out of the way as the overgrown lizard launched a five pointed star of fire at him.

As the star of fire continued to burn against the ground and wall, Charizard made a lazy circle before coming back at Neji and let loose a Flamethrower leading up to the Hyuga with the tail end of it trying to burn down Neji's hastily thrown Rotation. Neji stopped spinning after the rotating chakra had quickly diffused the flames over him only to have to duck as Charizard had did a kind of crash landing without the crash and was currently sending his glowing tail right at Neji's head. As the tail finished passing over Neji's head, Charizard proved the saying "No rest for the weary." As Neji began bringing his head back up, he got a face full of fire as Charizard slammed an extremely fast Fire Punch into it sending him skidding along the ground before he hit the wall over thirty feet away, embers burning in his hair, burn blisters already appearing along his face.

Once Neji had stopped, he quickly sprung to his feet and batted out the small embers in his hair and winced as he felt the burns on his face. Turning to glare at Naruto while keeping his Byakugan 'eye' on Charizard who had gone into what could only be called a parade rest stance, his eyes narrowed even further as he saw Naruto leaning against Venusaur's flank with his hands behind his head like he had no care in the world.

Scowling at the blond, Neji said "Do you plan on letting your pets fight for you Uzumaki? I always knew you were a failure who was too weak to make it in our world. And now you prove me right, hiding behind these creatures. Just admit that it is your fate to always fail and end this pathetic charade!"

Charizard growled and prepared to launch a Blast Burn at the fool who not only harmed his friend but dared to even utter such an insult at his trainer. He calmed down though as Naruto raised his arm and said "That's enough Charizard." Naruto had a raised eyebrow as Charizard visibly calmed down with a smirk on his face as the blond said "So you want me to fight you now instead of just letting me show the judges what my partners are capable of? Humph, very well. I'll just have to let them show off in the second round. Alright guys, Return!"

Naruto held up the three Pokeballs and they opened, shooting out their red beams which latched onto the Pokemon and drew them back into their Pokeballs. As each one disappeared, they had a smirk on their faces that practically screamed _"You're gonna get it." _

Naruto quickly clipped the Pokeballs onto his belt before he shrugged out of his vest. Cracking his neck as he stepped away from the vest, Naruto said "Before I utterly humiliate you, why don't I show you just how 'weak' I really am."

Neji smirked at Naruto and deactivated his Byakugan showing that he felt Naruto was no threat to him even as said blond took out a kunai and threw it at him before making hand signs.

"Shadow Kunai Clone Jutsu!"

The one kunai turned into five which were quickly moving through the air ready to begin the process of turning Neji into a pincushion. Neji simply scoffed before he rotated again throwing up mud and causing the kunai to hit a dome of chakra and go sailing upwards in different directions. Coming out of his spin, Neji sneered at Naruto and said "Is that really the best you can do?"

Naruto simply pointed up as poofing sounds were heard and the kunai erupted in smoke revealing shadow clones who had both hands in flicking positions with their pointer fingers glowing. Neji had just enough time to look up before the five clones let off their Aeroblasts.

Ten bullets of compressed air slammed into Neji's position sending even more mud flying with clouds of dust joining the globs of wet earth in temporary flight. The clones landed on the ground as the air where Neji was cleared revealing that Neji had brought his arms up in an attempt at a defense since he wouldn't have been able to get a Rotation up in time. Said arms were battered to the point that they were entirely black and blue from the couple of hits both arms took with the points of impact bleeding from cuts that looked like circles.

As the spectators began muttering to themselves about what Naruto just did, the Kazekage turned to his counterpart and said "A very interesting strategy don't you think?"

Sarutobi nodded and said "Naruto always did prefer to use his opponent's own abilities against them."

The Kage of the Sand village hmmed before he said "I am not familiar with that move his clones did. Do you have any idea what it was?"

Sarutobi nodded and said "It's an attack he modified for when he can't use more powerful ones. From what I understand, he shoots out an air bullet that's more compact and faster than a regular one."

"Ah." The Kazekage looked back down towards the arena as he thought 'My, my Naruto. You certainly are full of surprises aren't you? I'll definitely enjoy finding out everything that makes you so special.'

Back on the field, Neji growled to himself as he looked at the five smirking clones that had him surrounded. Neji dropped into his Gentle Fist stance, prepared to fight in close combat. For some reason, this only made the clones' smirks grow causing Neji to form a tick mark on his forehead before the clone in front of him spoke up.

"So, we're down to Taijutsu now eh? This should be interesting if nothing else. Now, let the real fun begin!"

The clones gave a loud cheer before the clone behind Neji and to his right launched himself at the Branch member. Neji sneered at the clone he saw attacking him head on in the corner of his eye and launched an almost lazy palm strike to dispel the clone only for said clone to slap the strike to the side before grabbing the wrist and pulled Neji in before kneeing him in the gut. As Neji stumbled back from the blow, the clone spun and delivered a viscous round house kick to Neji's chin. Recovering his footing in an instant, Neji growled before returning the favor by launching a faster palm strike right into the clone's gut disrupting the clone's chakra. However, as soon as the clone's chakra stopped flowing, it grinned at Neji before glowing blue for a split second before it exploded.

Neji was thrown out of the resulting smoke cloud with the entire front of his body covered in light burns. The only reason he was still alive at all was the fact that the clone had come from the original shadow clone Naruto threw and so the five clones all had less chakra then a normal exploding shadow clone would have.

As Neji shakily got to his feet, he saw the other four clones closing in their formation around him and getting into position to let loose with their own payloads. Growling to himself, Neji began spinning creating a dome of chakra around him. The clones wondered what he was doing since the dome was nowhere near touching them before it suddenly expanded to twice its size and slammed into them.

The chakra swirling through the Rotation shredded into the clones causing them to dispel in explosions which in turn shattered the dome from the four hits at point blank range. However, as the dome shattered, it revealed that Neji hadn't taken any more damage.

Said boy was currently glaring at Naruto who had during the time it took the clones to fight had gone back to his vest and pulled out a scroll from it. Just as Neji was getting ready to say a comment about Naruto not wanting to risk bodily harm and his desire to hide behind shields, Naruto unfurled the scroll open like a whip before holding it so that a rather large sealing array was facing Neji and pumped chakra into it.

What happened next stunned everyone watching as Naruto braced himself before the seal glowed and water shot out in wide spread destruction with the force of a fire hose before slamming into Neji who had tried to dodge the blast of water but had still been caught in the ten foot spread of water. Slamming back into the wall for the fourth time Neji screamed in pain as the force of water against his burns brought him close to the red line of his pain threshold.

After the water had drained into the holes, (Naruto was sure that the underground passages were now officially flooded.) Naruto rolled up the scroll he was holding and said "Neat trick isn't it Neji? I made a storage seal and placed it under the waterfall that I had trained at this month. The scroll sealed the water that landed on top of it for a whole day. Sealing scrolls tend to unleash everything in their seals at once so the water has quite a bit of force to it as all of it tries to get out at once.

Up in the Kage booth, both Kages had raised eyebrows as they both thought 'Now there's an interesting way to make water attacks.'

Neji pushed himself off the wall and glared with his Byakugan as he scowled at Naruto as he said "You just proved my point even further Uzumaki! All this posturing around, never once getting too close to me, it's obvious that you're afraid to come near me!"

Naruto raised an eyebrow before he said "Well excuse me if I want to show the judges just what exactly I can do instead of just ending it right here and now. Still, you're right, I do need to start showing more of my close range abilities. Transform!"

Naruto was covered in smoke before his new form was revealed. His ears twitched even as he ignored the laughing that was coming from the spectators at the new form he took. Slightly harder to ignore were the squeals of "Kawaii!" that came from most of the women. Hinata meanwhile had spared a quick glance to her father and said "And so the humiliation of the Hyuga prodigy begins." Hiashi and the rest of her clan started at Hinata's words and looked at her in shock but the girl was already back to staring down at the field.

Neji merely rose an eyebrow before he burst out in laughter. Struggling to get his laughter under control, he said "What foolishness is this supposed to be? How can you possibly hope to do anything in that form. You truly are a failure in every since of the word Uzumaki."

Said form was a small yellow rodent with red cheeks and a lightning bolt shaped tail. As blond turned Pikachu looked around getting used to the size difference, he said "Don't look down on this form just because of my current size Neji. Back when Pokemon still had a strong presence in this world, Pikachus were one of the best Pokemon to have on your team. Now, lets finish this. Thunderbolt!"

Naruto's cheeks sparked before a bolt of lightning shot at Neji who dodged the blast even as he was temporarily blinded by the lightning. But even as he dodged the lightning blast, a glowing tail appeared out of nowhere and slammed into his side busting the two ribs that the tail had connected to and sending him flying. No rest for the weary though, as the Mouse Pokemon appeared in front of Neji in a burst of Agility and before the boy could even think of touching the ground he was Slammed into sending him back up in the air towards the center of the arena. Still not having enough, Naruto sped back towards Neji and flipped before using his tail as a springboard and flipped through the air and slammed his now stiff tail into Neji's face sending him crashing into the floor. Neji was lucky that Naruto hadn't used his version of the Iron Tail attack or his whole face would have caved in. As it was, Neji nearly broke his back from the force of the hit when he landed. Naruto landed a few feet away from him before blurring a short distance away.

The entire stadium was quite as a mouse barely larger than a foot tall had shot lightning out of its cheeks and then proceeded to blitzkrieg the Hyuga prodigy with speeds that nothing that size had any right to use. As Neji rose to his feet yet again, he glared at Naruto before he paused as he saw something unexpected with his Byakugan. Something that he didn't expect to see. Naruto had three energies inside of him instead of the usual one.

There was of course the blue tinted energy that was his chakra. But there was also a red/orange tinted chakra as well. But while strange, that wasn't the real thing that caught Neji's attention. What did was the green energy that outshone both of the chakras and which Naruto seemed to be unconsciously drawing in from the environment around him and mixing with a small amount of his blue chakra to create bright balls of energy right next to his primary chakra coils.

He was brought out of his examination of the fruits of Naruto's labor by said transformed shinobi shouting out "Thunder Wave!" A blast of electricity shot out Naruto's body and slammed into Neji forming rings around his body as Neji screamed and then stiffened as the attack paralyzed him. Knowing that it was only temporary, Naruto rushed Neji and jumped up until he was level with Neji's face and slammed a chakra filled fist into Neji's face sending him flying from the small but powerful punch with a broken nose added to his mix of injuries.

Neji got to his feet and glared at the yellow rat in front of him before he let out a roar of anger and rushed at the Electric type and tried to hit it with palm strikes and kicks, aiming to seriously maim and even kill. However, Naruto showed just why he had chosen a Pikachu as his form as the difference in size was constantly working against Neji. Naruto dodged every strike that was launched at him even as he launched tail strikes at Neji's legs.

Meanwhile, unnoticed by everyone but Hinata who had been expecting it for some time now, dark clouds began forming overhead at a rapid rate. It wasn't until the clouds completely covered the sky over the village and lightning started to flash inside of the clouds that the other villagers noticed them. On the field, Neji had seen the clouds form but hadn't paid it any attention, instead doing his best to kill the nuisance that was currently dancing around his blows.

It was really too bad since if he hadn't been so focused on landing a hit he would have notice the energy that left Naruto's body and rose up into the sky forming the clouds. He was brought out of his fury induced haze by Naruto jumping back and shouting "Thunder!"

A lightning bolt answered Naruto's call and slammed down between Naruto and Neji about a foot from Neji throwing the Hyuga back by the concussive force the bolt of electricity produced when it tore through the air super heating the molecules it passed through. Once he landed, Neji groaned as he tried to lift his bruised and battered form out of the mud. As he raised his head, he growled at the sight of that damn blond still in that damn small form with that twice damnable smirk and sparks coming from his red cheeks. Looking up into the sky only made Neji's mood darker.

Where there once was only a couple of white clouds floating across high over head, now there was just one big roiling mass of storm clouds with the occasional bolt of lightning leaping from cloud to cloud.

Poofing sounds drew Neji's attention back to the ground where Naruto had made twenty three clones. But unlike the original who was a Pikachu, these twenty three clones each held a different form that somehow denoted their status as an Electric type.

Naruto's clones grinned at Neji as a lightning bolt managed to break the cloud cover and flashed across the sky. The original Naruto was now frowning at Neji though as he said "Neji, the moment you tried to kill Hinata, you brought about my fury. The minute you were selected as my opponent, I was given the opportunity to unleash all that fury without any consequences."

Another lightning bolt flashed across the top of the arena as Naruto continued. "You really messed up big time Neji. You thought that my partners' attacks and a few electric type attacks were bad? You haven't seen anything yet."

"Alpha." a clone in the back shouted

"Mike." another on the side answered

"FOXTROT!" This time every single electric type rose their voice as the sky roared overhead.

"GOOD BYE, MOTHER FU-" The last word was drowned out as twenty four bolts of lightning streaked down blinding everyone as they slammed into the twenty four electric types who added the incoming 'natural' electricity to their own power as they let loose massive Flash attacks that looked like a thousand paper bombs going off at the same time.

Neji screamed in pain as he clutched his hands at his eyes before the sound of more clones being made could be heard and Neji screamed again even louder than the last time. When everyone no longer saw nothing but white and could properly see again, they saw Neji laying face down in the mud with long cuts all over his body especially along his arms and legs. It was rather obvious where the cuts came from as he was surrounded by ten Scyther clones who had blood dripping off their blades. As Neji continued to bleed out on the ground under him, all of the clones dispelled while the original dropped his transformation and walked over.

Flipping Neji over with his foot, Naruto looked down at him and took special glee in how damaged Neji's eyes were as he said "Let this be a lesson to you Neji. You may believe in your fate crap, but there is only one thing that I believe in. I will do anything to protect my friends, and if anyone should ever hurt them, I will do everything in my power to make that person pay. Just be glad that Hinata asked me to promise not to kill you. Otherwise, you wouldn't be breathing right now."

Naruto walked past Neji's form and picked up his discarded vest before he began walking towards the tunnel that led to the competitors' box as Genma called out "Neji Hyuga is unable to battle. The winner of this match is Naruto Uzumaki."

As Naruto walked past the medics who were rushing towards Neji, he heard absolute silence from the crowds. As the villagers began talking to themselves in concern about the allies and powers the 'demon' now had and how it would most likely attack them in order to finish what he started, Naruto sighed and shook his head before entering the tunnel. The villagers hadn't changed their opinion about him in the past twelve years, why would they start today of all days?

Up in the Kage booth, the Kazekage hmmed and said "Well, it certainly seems he has the skills to become Chunin. And he did make tactically sound moves. What do you think Sarutobi?"

Sarutobi nodded and said "Naruto does indeed have the skills. And the way he went about the fight showed good planning. He could be a good candidate if he continues through the matches like he has."

Hiashi watched Neji be taken to the stadium's medical wing and fingered a scroll in his pocket as he wondered 'Should I give it to him now? With these circumstances, it could make his hate for the Main branch even greater. Ah, to hell with it, brother wanted Neji to know after he fought in his first Chunin exam so now is as good as ever.'

Hiashi stood up drawing his daughters' and the elders attention. When the elders saw him pat his pocket they gave small nods and looked back to the arena. Hinata and Hanabi did the same after he reassured them he would be back soon.

Meanwhile, the rest of the villagers were beginning to get restless waiting for the next match. As the crowd shouted out their displeasure of having to wait, Naruto saw the two Kages up in the stands having a heated discussion. Sighing, he thought 'And of course the Prince of Emos is going to get a pass and have a time extension. The Old Man tries to be fair, but this village really is full of double standards. If it was me or any of the others who were late, we would be disqualified as soon as the five minutes waiting period was up.' So caught up in his thoughts, Naruto almost didn't sense Shikamaru approaching. Almost.

"Man, what a drag. Where is that guy?" Shikamaru asked as he leaned forward on the rail next to Naruto.

Naruto shrugged and said "As far as I know, he's with Kakashi-sensei right now. That said, we could be and probably will be waiting hours for those two."

Shikamaru sighed and said "And of course they aren't going to disqualify the great Last Uchiha. So they'll most likely bypass his match for now and bump the others up. Troublesome, I should have just stayed in bed this morning."

Naruto chuckled and said "And have your mom hit you with that frying pan she's legendary for because you didn't come? I think you would be better off just fighting your matches and getting it over with."

Shikamaru sighed and said "That's true I guess. Still, it's such a drag."

Naruto shook his head with a wistful smile on his face before the Chunin that served as one of Sarutobi's bodyguards shunshined down to the arena floor and whispered into Genma's ear. Naruto noted with faint amusement that Genma was not happy with what he was just told and thought 'Well at least I now know he'll be impartial when the Emo does get here.'

As Genma made his announcement, the whole stadium echoed with boos from the villagers and the visiting dignitaries. Sighing at the unfairness of it all, Naruto glanced up to the Kage booth and saw Sarutobi looking right at him. Seeing that he had Naruto's attention, the old Kage made a 'come here' gesture. Naruto shrugged and transformed into an Alakazam drawing the other contestants' attention before he disappeared in a flash of blue just as Genma called for the next pair to come down.

Reappearing in front of the Hokage's seat, Naruto heard Kankuro forfeit his match and shot a quick look of incredulity down at the competitor's box before ignoring the crowd that was getting really fed up with the competitors and said "You wanted to see me Lord Hokage?"

Briefly wondering if it was snowing in the Land of Wind, Sarutobi nodded and said "I did. I was wondering if you were proficient enough in sensing people's presence if you could pick an individual one out for me."

Naruto frowned and said "Well the correct term would be a person's aura, since that's what I would actually use to identify them. But to answer your question sir, I don't think so. My range is still limited to half a klick around me and with all these people here I don't think I could separate the auras even if he was in range."

The Kazekage had stiffened minutely at the talk of Naruto using Psychic powers to read nearby auras but had relaxed after Naruto said he didn't think he could do it. Both Naruto and Sarutobi's eyes had briefly glanced over to him as Sarutobi saw the gesture and Naruto sensed the tenseness.

Sighing, Sarutobi said "Well it was worth a shot I suppose. Thank you Naruto, that is all."

Naruto nodded before he Teleported back to the competitor's box just as Shikamaru came to the decision that he'd rather face his mother's wrath than fight a girl right now. Shaking his head, Naruto's eyes glowed blue for a brief instant as Shikamaru was telekinetically grabbed and thrown over the railing. Dropping his transformation as he walked to the rail, he grinned when he looked over it to see Shikamaru shooting him an annoyed look.

Looking to the center of the field, he saw Temari holding her new battle fan and looking up at him in a weird way before focusing back on Shikamaru and called him a lazy bum. Sighing to himself, Naruto thought 'I'm beginning to regret putting as much chakra into that thing as I did.'

Flashback: End Of Preliminary Matches

As the other contestants all made to leave the forest with their sensei, Sarutobi said "Naruto, I'd like to speak to you for a minute."

Naruto's clone flinched knowing what was coming. He softly cursed under his breath wondering why his brother had to be so hot blooded when he handled the Tenten/Temari situation. He blamed the Infernape transformation. Turning back around after telling Kakashi that he'd see him outside, CNaruto walked over to the old Kage who made a walk-with-me gesture.

As the two walked, Sarutobi said "I'm half tempted to remove your creator from the finals for what your brother did to young Temari's fan." Ignoring the flinch from the clone he continued "However, I know how much he wants to use the final exam to prove his strength to all of the villagers. Therefore, his punishment will be to go to Tenten's weapon shop and give her the chakra that she will undoubtedly need to make Temari's replacement fan. I'll inform Tenten to hold off making the fan until tomorrow and to expect you."

CNaruto nodded but Sarutobi wasn't done yet.

"Naruto will also have to have his clones help with the preparations for the finals in a month, without the pay that these D-rank missions would normally pay. And only fifty clones total per week will be allowed."

The clone flinched again as it pictured all the work those fifty clones would have to do. Even if his creator made all of the clones the first day, they would still not be able to get all of the preparations that were necessary done. Nowhere close in fact. Naruto would just have to ration out the clones he sent to help with the preparations.

Sarutobi dismissed the clone and went to talk to Tenten telling her about his decision and the girl ran off to Temari to tell her to come tomorrow.

Scene Change: Next Day: Wolf Claw Weapons 7:00

(Please note, I have next to no idea how to metalwork like this so I literally pulled this out of thin air. No hate please.)

The bell over the store's door rang catching the attention of Tenten and Temari who looked up to see Naruto walk in with his head down in thought. He had left a clone with half his chakra training his partners until he was done here. That was enough chakra for the clone to make a thousand man army if he needed to. Still, Naruto wished the clone could of come instead of him since he wasn't sure how long this would take and he had planned on asking the people at the hospital if he could take Hinata out for a while. No one should be subjected to the torture of boredom after all.

Coming out of his thoughts, Naruto looked up and noticed the two girls staring at him funny. He wondered if maybe he should have worn something other than his regular training clothes before he realized that they were staring at what he had in one of his hands. Namely his left hand which had a large lump of metal in it that was glowing slightly from the chakra going through it to keep it stuck to his hand.

Looking back up, he raised his hand and said "Can you use this? It's all that's left of Temari's old fan, but I thought she might want to use it to help make her new one."

Temari stood gaping at him wondering once again why a ninja from the Hidden Leaf would be helping her like this. Sure the Sand and Leaf villages were allies, but that didn't mean they went out of each other's way to help the other.

Tenten was staring for a completely different reason. Her eyes had something approaching stars in them as she looked at a piece of metal that had absolutely no impurities in it. The thing was practically glowing it was so pure. Tenten's mind instantly realized that when Naruto's clone had gone nova, it had bubbled off all of the trace impurities that regular metal working couldn't have gotten. Thoughts began racing through her head about what she could do with access to that kind of heat before she shook her head to clear those thoughts. She had a war fan to make, conspiracies to get Naruto to work in her store could wait later.

The next thirty minutes saw Tenten explaining what they would have to do and showing Naruto and Temari the metal that they would be using. Tenten than chose a large amount of the necessary chakra metal that still needed purification and asked Naruto to do the same thing to it as his clone did to Temari's fan. Naruto had flinched at that and shot Temari an apologetic look before he placed the metal over the vat in his hands and then transformed.

An hour and a half after that found Naruto pouring as much chakra as he could into the furnace which held the molds for Temari's new fan. They had to wait an hour for the metal to cool enough for Naruto to make a few clones and for them to pour into the necessary molds. Once in the oven, Tenten had Naruto blast his strongest Fire type attack into the oven so that they could get it as hot as possible and not have to wait a whole day in the process.

Now he was pouring chakra into a nearby seal that transferred the chakra into the oven via seals that coated the inside of the oven. Tenten helped him regulate how much chakra was being used so that way Naruto wouldn't burn out halfway through the procedure. What confused Tenten but made her happy was the fact that Naruto's chakra seemed to actually speed up the chakra imbuing process. It was like the metal they were working with couldn't get enough of his chakra instead of having to tolerate it like the process felt like every other time she did this process with her own chakra. Little did they know that Naruto was unconsciously pumping in the same energy that he used for Pokemon attacks into the metal and its chakra absorption properties was having a molecular reaction to the slightly different form of energy.

Two hours later, the process was done and Tenten told Naruto that he could leave seeing as how the rest of the process wouldn't need any extreme heat or chakra. Naruto nodded and created a clone that turned into an Espeon that flashed out while he turned into a Gallade and transported to Waterfall 15.

End Flashback

Naruto was brought out of his thoughts as Temari showed him exactly why he shouldn't have poured so much of that chakra/unknown energy mix into the fan. The inherent energy mixed with her own chakra augmenting it in ways that no one currently in existence could understand and made the wind jutsu she sent towards the forest portion of the exam where Shikamaru was hiding so powerful that whole trees were being thrown out of the ground.

Despite himself knowing that Temari was most likely an enemy of the village, Naruto couldn't help but let out a small whistle at the destruction that he was indirectly responsible for. Down on the field Temari was staring at her fan in awe even as she kept her attention alert for any attempts made by Shikamaru. Even after a month of getting used to the new fan, she still couldn't believe the kind of power the fan helped her produce. Once again wondering at how Naruto and Tenten could stand helping her like they did, she almost didn't notice the shadow coming towards her again.

In the end though, Temari's new fan just couldn't handle Shikamaru's lazy ass supercomputer of a brain. After a good long two hours of the two throwing out strategies and countering them, Shikamaru managed to catch her in his shadow by using the holes that Naruto had made in his entrance and making a large net of shadows over the entire arena. As Shikamaru walked towards Temari forcing her to do the same, Naruto noticed how sweaty Shikamaru was and how wobbly his legs were.

'The guy's practically dead on his feet.' Naruto thought as the two reached each other and Shikamaru rose an arm while Temari gritted her teeth trying to fight the possession jutsu even as her own arm raised.

"I quit!"

Silence permeated the air as the crowd sat stunned for a few moments as they tried to process the Nara's statement before they erupted in chaos as they shouted their displeasure. Naruto saw Shikamaru say something to Temari as she demanded why and thought 'Looks like I was right. He's almost completely out of chakra and probably believed that he wouldn't be able to last very long in the semi finals. That's the problem with Naras, they're so smart but they're too lazy to work to get the stamina they need for long drawn out battles. I just hope he recovers enough chakra in time to not be a liability during the invasion.'

He was brought out of his thoughts by a whirlwind of leaves that suddenly appeared in the center of the arena with two figures back to back in its center. Naruto's right eyebrow started twitching at the smug and arrogant smirk on the younger figure's face and thought 'And so the Prince of Emos finally graces us with his presence. Typical, thinking he's all that just because of his last name and some bloodline. All powerful Sharingan my ass.'

Hopping over the railing, Naruto made a dash towards them and he saw Sasuke's eyes gleam as he rushed towards them only for that gleam to turn into a glower as Naruto passed the two by without deigning to say a word and began supporting Shikamaru as he pulled a scroll out of his vest and unsealed a small bag of chakra pills that he kept handy for when he had to make large batches of clones more than once a day to properly learn a technique.

Holding the bag open, Naruto said "You look like you're going to fall over any second Shika. Here, these will help." Shikamaru nodded his thanks and took one of the pills. As he popped it into his mouth, Naruto resealed his bag and put it back into his vest before he started walking Shikamaru off the field. As he did, Naruto said "Come on, we don't want to make the Emo Prince angry by stealing his spotlight."

This got a chuckle out of Kakashi who quickly followed them and a glare that could probably have burned a hole through steel from Sasuke. As they made their way through the tunnel where the stairs led to their box, they passed Gaara who glared at Naruto and sent a burst of killer intent at him only for said blond to let loose on the redhead with a full on blast of Dragon type intent in return. Gaara stiffened slightly even as he continued his sedate pace out of the tunnel into the arena.

Shikamaru, who had been in between the two boys sighed as he felt Naruto's intent fade back to neutral and said "Man, what a drag. You two have some really messed up KI. Troublesome jinchuriki."

Kakashi stiffened while Naruto blinked before he shot a side glance at his shadow wielding comrade and said "Okay, you figuring out that I'm a jinchuriki isn't that much of a surprise considering what clan you're from. But how the hell did you figure out that Gaara was one?"

"Well you just confirmed it for one." Shikamaru said with a grin and Naruto softly cursed under his breath before the pineapple haired Genin continued. "There's also the fact that he controls sand and can do it unconsciously if he needs to. That and those marks around his eyes were indicators of Sand's jinchuriki since the first one was made."

Naruto shot him a calculating look as he said "So is it just me and Gaara you recognized or do you know what sets apart the rest of us?"

Shikamaru shrugged and said "There are a few documented markers for Jinchuriki. I only know about you and recently Gaara though."

Naruto nodded and was about to say something before his nose suddenly picked up the scent of blood. Frowning, he and Shikamaru reached the top of the stairs where the hall split to head to the stands and to the competitors box. There on the floor were two bodies with Grass village headbands that looked like they had been crushed to death. Naruto swore under his breath and Kakashi, who had been forgotten behind them said "Looks like one of the Daimyos wanted Gaara to throw his match. It doesn't look like he appreciated the gesture though."

Naruto turned his head and said "Please tell me you taught him something that will allow him to survive."

Kakashi nodded and said "I taught him my best technique and worked to get his speed as high as possible with the time restraints we had. Still, I'd feel better if we could watch the match and intervene if necessary."

"Troublesome." Shikamaru muttered before he left Naruto's support and began walking to the competitor's box leaving Naruto and Kakashi to run up to the spectators' stands to watch the match. One way or another, this fight was going to get ugly. The only question was for who.

The two members of Team 7 appeared next to where Sakura was sitting in a burst of speed surprising Gai and Lee who first sensed them and then Sakura, Ino, and Chouji who noticed where the two Taijutsu masters were looking and saw Kakashi looking down into the arena with a calm expression and Naruto panting the slightest bit from keeping up with Kakashi's near all out sprint.

"K-Kakashi-sensei! Where have you and Sasuke been?" Sakura asked in surprise.

'I was teaching Sasuke a jutsu that I didn't want getting out and wanted to make sure no one would spy on our training." Kakashi said as he continued to focus on the arena where Genma had just started the fight. Looking up for a brief instant, Kakashi's eye quickly roamed over the stadium before focusing back on Sasuke who had opened up with the standard Shinobi's greeting, throwing a couple of shuriken which Gaara's sand blocked before turning into a sand clone that grinned at the Uchiha. Said clone launched the shuriken back at Sasuke who threw two more knocking all four out of the sky.

"Only eight black ops in a stadium this big? What is the Hokage thinking?" Kakashi asked quietly.

"Sixteen actually. There's four spread out around the roofs with four more serving as the Old Man's second line of guards." Naruto said just as quietly having passively sensed the auras on the roofs when he was talking with the Hokage.

Kakashi shot a quick look at his student as Gai said in a serious voice "Until we know the enemies plans, they are probably needed on the outside to gather information."

Kakashi and Naruto nodded while the other Genin shot them questioning looks. By Gai's side, Lee shot his own look around and mentally prepared himself for anything. One thing he had learned under his sensei was that whenever he talked in that kind of voice, something big was about to happen.

Back down in the arena, Sasuke was using his new speed to bust up the sand clone and get through Gaara's sand defense and had already put in a few hits. Gaara's sand was meanwhile trying to bat Sasuke away like King Kong on the Empire State building swatting at airplanes. Eventually, Sasuke stopped a short distance away and began panting from exertion as sweat rolled down his face and Naruto said "Sasuke, you poor, poor fool. Did you actually think in your current condition you could keep that kind of speed up for the entire match?"

Everyone around him shot him various looks before they focused back and saw a dome of sand begin to form over Gaara. Sasuke rushed to land a final hit on Gaara before the dome finished forming but only managed to bloody his fist on the sand before he had to jump back to avoid the sand spikes that formed and tried to turn him into a pincushion. Sasuke considered the dome for a minute before he hopped back to the wall and then up it until he was almost at the top looking down into the arena. Making three quick hand signs, he clutched his left wrist as that hand became coated in electricity and began making a truly noisy racket as the sound of a thousand birds chirping began to ring around the stadium.

Gai shot Kakashi a hard look and said "That's the jutsu you taught him? Kakashi, teaching a rookie Genin an assassination jutsu of that caliber is very unyouthful! What were you thinking?"

Kakashi sighed and said "Just as you taught Lee how to open the gates, I needed to teach Sasuke something that would help him win. That jutsu is probably the only thing I could teach him that would pierce Gaara's defenses."

"Excuse me Kakashi-sensei, but what does Gai-sensei mean by assassination jutsu?" Sakura asked.

"The Chidori is a technique of my own creation Sakura. It coats the hand in Lightning style chakra and requires a thrusting motion to work properly. But when done right, it can punch through almost anything." As he was talking, Sasuke blasted down the wall leaving a small ditch in it before he reached the ground and began carving a ditch there as well as he rushed towards the sand dome.

As Sakura and the other rookie Genin looked back down in awe, Naruto suddenly stiffened as he felt chakra being built up somewhere in the spectator stands. Kakashi and Gai sensed the chakra as well and looked around without seeming to. All around the stadium, Leaf Jounin also prepared themselves for what they knew was about to come.

Meanwhile, Sasuke had reached Gaara's dome and shoved his arm through the dome hitting Gaara inside. There was silence for about five seconds before a pain filled scream of terror came from the dome. Feathers fell from the sky as Sasuke ripped his arm out of the sand and jumped back to avoid the large sand covered arm that tried to take his head off. Meanwhile, every Jounin in the stadium prepared to do their duty as the enemy Shinobi revealed themselves. The invasion of the Hidden Leaf Village had begun.


	18. Invasion!

18. Invasion!

Author's Notes: Hey guys, thanks to all the reviews I've gotten for this story. Unfortunately, I have some bad news for you. As I've told some of you over PM around chapter 13, This is the last chapter I'll be posting before putting this story on temporary hiatus. This is in no way because I have lost my muse on this story, far from it actually. But I need to work on my other stories before I completely forget about what they're about. So, I'm going to work on the others and get each one to certain areas and then I'll be doing a chapter for one story before moving on to the next. The order of these stories and where I'm taking them are as follows:

The Flash Fire: Chunin exams to Invasion

Time Traveling Prince: Will write to at least the last Star Point, possibly to the inner vs sister fight

Sensors, Witches, and Wizards: Will finish book 1

HTTYD The Engineer: Will write to the end of the movie, possibly go past it at a later time

Oh What Shadow Clones Can Do: Finish the Land of Sea arc and put in the Land of Snow mission just because I feel like it. (Anyone who says that that is not the proper timeline can go throw themselves in the ocean. It is fan fiction and I want it that way, so there! :P)

This is the order that I'm going to do. However, you can also expect an influx of new potential stories that I have had in my head for ages but never actually put to the hard drive. Now that that's out of the way, enjoy this new chapter.

Story Start: Chunin Exams Stadium: Invasion Beginning

As feathers fell from the sky, civilians, Genin, and even a few Chunin started to fall asleep. Disguised Sound and Sand shinobi dropped their disguises and began to do battle with the Leaf shinobi who were still awake. The instant Naruto saw the feathers begin to fall, he and Lee made the release signs and fluctuated the chakra in their bodies dispelling the technique that was trying to take them out of the fight. Lee saw a Sound shinobi leaping over some civilians towards them with a kunai in hand and launched himself at him. Lee's foot smashed into the enemy nin's face sending him flying down into the arena and landing in an unmoving heap. Lee landed on top of one of the benches and did his best to ignore the pain that was in his still healing legs as he looked around before he took off after another enemy.

Gai and Kakashi also dealt with the shinobi near them before the two spread out a little and began to clear out the section that they were in. Naruto meanwhile had made a four man team of clones who had turned into Gallades before he rushed down the stairs blasting any enemy shinobi foolish enough to get in his way with Aeroblasts before he jumped off of the railing transforming into a Spearow to get to the Kage booth quickly without attracting too much attention. As he rushed over to his village leader for orders, he saw the Kage booth erupt in smoke and two figures head to the roof, one holding the other hostage.

When Naruto was roughly three-fourths to his target, he saw a purple barrier in the shape of an overturned box form and cursed to himself as he saw one of the Old Man's Anbu guards impact the barrier catching fire. Pushing his wings to the limit, he rushed to the other three Anbu and quickly landed before he dropped his transformation.

The three Anbu had kunai at his neck before he could even blink before they recognized him and lowered their weapons. Taking a quick breath to calm himself, Naruto looked around and frowned at what he saw. There were four Sound shinobi keeping the barrier up and it looked like Sarutobi was talking to Orochimaru who was in the Kazekage's robes while the man held him at kunai point.

'Well that answers the question of where the mastermind is. Now I just have to get the Old Man out of there. But the instant he gets free, Orochimaru will just order the barrier to be dropped and we'll still have a huge fight on our hands. I can't send out the clones where they're needed if I'm trying to keep that Pedo-Snake from biting me and killing everyone else in this stadium. I'm going to need a distraction.'

Naruto ran through a few strategies before finally deciding to just make Orochimaru's day absolutely miserable, plain and simple. By that time, the two Kage level nin had separated and revealed their respective battle attire. The four Sound nin maintaining the barrier had also taken the time to raise inner barriers to protect their backs. Naruto saw Sarutobi look at him out of the corner of his eye and smirk at him before he winked. Frowning at everything that could imply, Naruto turned to the Anbu captain and said "Sir, I can get him out of there but you're going to have to be ready to get out of here real fast."

The captain barely shot him a glance as he said "If you think you can get him out of there then by all means kid."

Naruto nodded before he made one of his two favorite hand signs and smoke erupted around him as thirteen exploding shadow clones came into existence. The smoke clouds drew everyone's attention and the Sound ninja had just enough time to wonder what the blond kid was planning before they all turned into Alakazams and Teleported into the barrier.

The original Naruto appeared right beside Sarutobi while the other clones appeared around them in a wide v formation with the ends pointed at Orochimaru. Naruto didn't pay any attention to that though. As soon as he was beside his leader he flipped the bird at Orochimaru with one hand and grabbed Sarutobi with the other before he Teleported back out of the barrier and reappeared halfway down the roof. The fractured Anbu squad quickly joined up with them and the group sat back to watch the show.

Back in the barrier, the clone at the head of the formation smirked as he looked out of the barrier where his creator and the old man were now safely outside. Looking back at Orochimaru who had an extremely pissed off look and looked ready to tear through him and his twelve brothers caused CNaruto to smirk even more at the pedophile.

Orochimaru snarled at the clones who seemed to be mocking him as he said "You have messed with my plans for the last time you damn Kyubi brat! I'm going to kill you and then take great pleasure in cutting your body to pieces as I figure out what makes you tick!"

The clone chuckled as he said "Ah Orochimaru, you've spent so much time trying to become immortal, you have forgotten what truly matters in this world."

"And what is that?" Orochimaru asked dangerously.

CNaruto's smirk turned absolutely evil as he and his Psychic type brothers made a hand sign before they were covered in smoke. When it cleared, the twelve clones around the area were now Snorlaxes while the clone who had been doing the talking looked like a male Yamanaka.

Orochimaru rose an eyebrow and said "Oh, and how might you know about Deidara hm?"

CDeidara smirked and said "You'd be surprised how easy it is to get a hold of a bingo book with Kakashi as your sensei. Still, I did say that you had forgotten something, and now I'm going to tell you what that is."

Grinning, CDeidara rose his hand in a half-hand sign causing Orochimaru's eyes to widen as he suddenly remembered what had happened in the Forest of Death and said "Art, is an explosion!"

Orochimaru's wide eyes turned into full panic as he shouted "Drop the barrier! Now!"

"Katsu!"

The entire arena shuddered as the explosive force of a six ton bomb went off inside the barrier visibly rocking the building underneath.

Meanwhile, over a thousand miles away, the Mad Bomber known as Deidara paused in his preparations to bomb a target building for a mission Akatsuki had taken to help fund their cause when he felt a tingle run down his spine.

"I sense that someone has honored me and my art by making a very big explosion, hm." Deidara muttered to himself. Looking down at the village that he was currently flying over on one of his creations, he grinned as he said "I think I'll give them something to truly work towards, hm."

Putting away the clay that he was about to use, Deidara reached into a different pouch and pulled out one of his two C3 bombs. Letting it drop out of his hands, Deidara expanded the bomb and grinned as it neared the ground even as the villagers below him started to panic at the strange object falling towards them.

"Art, is an explosion! Katsu!"

The bomb hit the target building and detonated, taking the whole village with it. As the fireball rose towards him lifting his creation up with its updraft, Deidara nodded and said "That's how you make art, hm."

Back in the Hidden Leaf Village, fighting in the arena paused for a short moment as everyone saw the explosion inside the barrier. The pause was rather short though as the Leaf nin quickly got over their shock and attacked their enemies with a vengeance planning on having their revenge for their leader.

Meanwhile on the roof, Sarutobi stared at the smoke that remained in stunned awe as he thought 'Tree, mother of Log. That had to be the biggest explosion I've ever seen.' Then the barrier dropped and the smoke billowed out turning their vision to practically nil.

When the smoke cleared, the shinobi saw the four ninja holding Orochimaru as they fled the village. Even with the distance that was already covered, they could see that every inch of Orochimaru's body was covered in black chakra burns.

"Should we pursue Lord Hokage?" The Anbu captain asked.

"No. Help defend this area. Naruto has told me he left a little surprise at the borders for anyone who gets out." Sarutobi said while Naruto nodded his head in confirmation. Turning to the blond, Sarutobi said "Naruto, flood this village with your clones and take out any Sand or Sound shinobi you find. And begin clearing out the forest. Once you make your clones, go after Gaara."

Naruto saluted before he made a clone with enough chakra to make fifty more and act as a relay and Teleported over to one of the other roofs. Once there, he proceeded to make an army of clones who began teleporting away to their positions. Once they left Naruto was about to go after Gaara when he saw three rather large snakes, one with three heads no less, suddenly appear into existence in the forest and begin heading to the village walls. Sighing to himself, Naruto made three more clones. Jerking his head to the snakes, he gave them a silent order and the clones saluted before changing into different large dogs and took off faster than the wind across the rooftops of the village.

Sighing to himself a second time, Naruto thought 'And I was feeling so good this morning too. Couldn't that Pedo-Snake have at least wait until the finals?' Shaking his head, Naruto quickly turned into an Arcanine and focused on the scent of raccoon and blood that he had smelled when he first met the Sand team. The blood part of the scent was a bit hard to separate from everywhere else but the raccoon part was coming in loud in clear. Naruto poured chakra into his legs and took off after the retreating Sand team at speeds that made his form blur into one big bolt of color to passerby.

As he passed Sasuke who was trying to track the team, Naruto glanced back and thought 'He should have stayed in the stadium. I'll be getting to Gaara a lot faster than him and I actually have a type of elemental attack that will be effective against him.'

Putting that thought behind him, Naruto turned his head back forward and pumped up the speed as he reached the village wall and raced up it before hopping off and used the nearby tree branches as steps back down to the ground ignoring all of the clones that he had seen in the village and forest who were doing their best to turn everything red with blood.

Time Change: Thirty Seconds After Naruto's Orders Were Received.

The skies over the village and the surrounding forest erupted in a mass of blue flashes as the clones Teleported from the roofs that they were created on and reappeared in position to get a quick bird's eye view before they started to free fall. As the clones fell, they transformed into various Pokemon. Anything that had wings that Naruto knew how to fight with suddenly shot out of the smoke clouds as the swarms flapped their wings to get as much speed as possible on their way down before they started blitzkrieging the enemy nin.

Salamences roared as they lead the charge in the village roasting enemy squads who were too close together followed closely by Pidgeots whose wings glowed. The rest of the clones began picking off the rest as they made runs through the canyons that the village streets represented. In the forest area, Beedrill swarmed down through the trees as Ledyba and Ledian followed their lead. Hoothot and Noctowl began putting enemy ninja into Genjutsu like sleep as they let loose with Hypnosis only for those ninja to be taken out moments later by Crobat.

A group of the clones landed and switched forms coming out of the resulting smoke clouds as Sceptile and began slashing through everything in sight. Those actions were repeated in the village where Blaziken and Lucario began to tear into the forces on the rooftops.

While all of this was going on, three clones rushed across the rooftops as they ran towards their targets. Their forms were ones spoken of in legend, and not even the wind could keep up with them as they headed towards the three snake summons. The three clones split up with the Entei taking the left snake, the Suicune going right and the Raikou heading dead center before all three rushed up the side of the village wall and let loose with their strongest attacks as soon as they reached the top.

Little known fact about legendaries: The energy that they use for attacks is three times denser than a 'normal' Pokemon's energy. This makes all of their attacks that much more effective although Naruto had even more trouble learning how to keep the attacks from exploding in his face than he did modifying the move Synthesis. Which is why he never went legendary during a battle before, too much risk of him being sent to the hospital for a month. Still, when you have a big target, you bring out the big guns.

(Note: I don't consider Mewtwo legendary since he is technically an 'artificial' Pokemon.)

Raikou focused his power through the rain clouds it carried that allowed him to launch lightning strikes at will. After the split second it took to charge the cloud, Raikou let loose with Thunder, sending no less than fifteen bolts of lighting one after the other into the snake's body. The snake screamed as it writhed under the electrocution it was getting before it dispersed back to the summoning world in order to escape death.

Scoffing to itself about cowards and how the snake should have taken it like a mon, the clone looked into the forest before it spotted some Sound nin running from a Sceptile clone. The Raikou rushed down the wall and appeared in front of the nin letting off a bark that sounded like crashing thunder scaring the living shit out of the nins before he rushed them with his fangs glowing yellow and sparking.

Entei forced himself not to bark at the snake knowing that the hidden leaf village didn't need a volcano on their doorstep. Instead, the clone let loose with the next best thing and shot a Lava Plume out of his mouth. The lava splashed against the snake and began burning a hole through the snake's tough skin causing it to writhe around in pain before the clone put it out of its misery by taking its head off with a well timed Fire Blast. Seeing the summon go up in smoke, the clone rushed down the wall into the forest hoping to get some more kills under his fur. As he ran, his fangs began glowing red as he searched for his first victim.

Suicune knew that he would have the most trouble by far. Unlike his two brothers who could already use Fire and more recently Electric type attacks, Suicune was stuck with his Water type attacks when Ice would have done the job so much better. Still, he was currently a legendary, he'd make do with what he had and make it look easy in the process. Nothing less was acceptable.

Such thoughts were put on hold since the snake with three heads had instantly spotted him as soon as he reached the top of the wall. Having spotted the other two dogs take out their own opponents rather quickly, the snake assumed that the clone was a summon sent to deal with him and instantly launched one of its heads at Suicune not planning on letting him do anything to dispel him.

Suicune wasn't planning on being dispelled either though. As soon as the snake opened its mouth to swallow the Aurora Pokemon whole, Suicune let loose with a godly overpowered Hydro Pump. The massive force of water slammed into the snake's open mouth and began forcing the snake back. Ten seconds of high pressure water soon proved to be too much for the inside of the snake's throat. As the water blasted a hole out of the back of the snake's throat, it let out a pained scream and began writhing around.

Suicune watched the snake twist around in pain apathetically for about two seconds before he timed his next action carefully and jumped onto the snake's body just below the damaged head using chakra to stick to the snake. The snake barely felt the clone land on it and didn't have anywhere enough sense of mind to deal with it through the storm of pain it was still going through. Suicune proceeded to rush up the rest of the way to the top of the head and stopped dead center of where he figured the brain would be and blasted a massive amount of chakra out of its legs.

The defenders of the wall who weren't currently fighting enemies with the aid of clones winced as a massive chunk of the snake's middle head exploded as it tried to escape the surge of chakra. Suicune jumped off of the seven cubic foot hole he had made and landed on the ground as the snake slammed down behind him before it left the realm in a burst of smoke.

Suicune looked over his shoulder at the smoke before he shook his head and thought 'I know I was going for making it look easy, but that was TOO easy.' Looking back forward, the Suicune ran back up the wall and began helping the defenders fight off the invading nin.

Scene Change: Forrest: En Route To Jinchuriki Clash

Naruto had seen his Legendary clones deal with the snake summons on his way to the village wall. After he had passed over, the Raikou and Entei clones linked up with him. Naruto ignored the ionized and burnt blood that coated their furs as the two fell into a triangle formation with Naruto in the lead. As the three Uzumakis made their way farther into the forest, the original turned his head and said "Keep the other two busy. I'll handle Gaara myself." The two Legendaries nodded even as all three put in another burst of speed.

As they continued on for another ten minutes, Naruto was just beginning to wonder if they had been set on a false trail when several kunai with a purple liquid on them were launched at them from the trees. Simultaneous Roars from all three Transformed blondes had the kunai blown back where they came from. There was the briefest of pauses before Kankuro's puppet rushed them.

Naruto broke to the left while the Raikou clone went right. The two put on a quick burst of speed to get out of the fighting area. Entei merely stopped and opened his mouth before he blasted an overpowered Fire Blast at the puppet. The puppet ended up going through the flames and came with its outer shell badly burnt but still functional. Entei jumped out of the way of the puppet that swiped a poison knife right where he had been previously. Entei retaliated with a Fire Spin. Unable to get out of the way fast enough, the puppet was unable to avoid the stream of fire that quickly shot at it and wrapped around the puppet.

In a nearby bush, Kankuro paled in horror as his puppet was turned into nothing more than burnt ash and metal. That horror turned into terror as the clone took a quick sniff of air through his nose and then turned to look at exactly where Kankuro was. Kankuro was only able to get out an "Aw, sh-." before he found his face full of fur as Entei rushed him and swatted at him with a paw. Kankuro went flying before he hit a tree and slumped over unconscious.

Entei padded over and flipped the puppeteer over to confirm that he was unconscious. Looking around, he took notice of just how far they actually were from the village. Glancing back down at his opponent, he sighed to himself and thought 'By the time he wakes up the invasion will be over. And I've killed too many people today as it is.' The clone padded over Kankuro's body and took off after his brother and creator.

With Arcanine And Raikou

Naruto and his other clone regrouped once they were a hundred yards away from where they were ambushed. As they kept running, Naruto wondered just how far the other two members of the team planned on running. Five minutes later, he got his answer as the scent trail stopped its rush away from the village. The two transformed beings slowed down to a walk and continued towards the two scents in front of them at a cautious pace.

They came upon Gaara and Temari a minute later, Temari in one tree with a massive bruise on her face and Gaara in another looking at the two of them with a mad look in his eyes as he snarled at them. Naruto dropped his transformation and stepped forward as he said "Hello, Gaara."

Gaara's snarl worsened as he said "Uzumaki. I've been looking forward to this. You'll prove my existence."

Naruto sighed and said "I'd rather not actually. I'm only here to make sure you don't become a threat to the village. Preferably without completely destroying this sector of the forest."

Gaara's mad gleam in his eye turned even madder as he said "I don't care about your pathetic village. All I care about is proving my existence."

Naruto sighed again and said "Raikou, please make sure Temari stays out of this."

The clone nodded and let loose a Roar. Temari stiffened in fear and fought against the urge to run away from her brother. Never mind the fact that she had wanted to get clear of her brother for a while now as he descended further into madness. Then Raikou let loose with a second, louder Roar and all courage in her body said "See ya sucker!"

Temari bolted from the tree she was in and took off through the woods away from the upcoming fight. After the clone muttered a good luck, he took off after her to make sure she stayed away until his creator finished with Gaara. In the woods behind them, the Entei clone paused momentarily as he heard the roar that sounded a lot like thunder before he continued at a slower pace planning on going around and finding his brother since it seemed that his creator didn't want an audience.

Naruto briefly noted that the psychopath in front of him didn't seem to be the least bit affected by his clone's actions. A raised eyebrow was the only reaction he received before the cork on his gourd popped off and sand poured out of it.

Naruto frowned at the sand and said "Last chance Gaara. you really don't want to do this."

His only answer was the sand rushing at him causing him to take five chakra laced jumps back before he hid behind a nearby tree and pulled out a Pokeball. Gaara growled at the tree that was hiding his target and sent a wave of sand at it which slammed into the tree and began to topple it over Naruto. The tree fell but Naruto was no longer anywhere near the massive tree.

This was proven as a fact as two streams of fire slammed down onto Gaara's position before two blurs shot down past the branch he was standing on and pulled up just short of the ground and blazed a path through the woods quickly getting out of sight.

As the flames died down around Gaara, they revealed a curved shell of glass over Gaara's head that had protected him. Once the danger was gone, the glass slid off of the sand that hadn't been fused together and fell down to the ground where it shattered. Gaara glanced down at the shattered remains of part of his sand reserves and actually frowned as he thought 'I won't be able to take many more of those.' Looking back up, Gaara started actively searching for his target, turning his head each way as struggled to see or hear some trace of his opponent. However, with all of the trees surrounding him it would be next to impossible to find the two fliers before they were right on top of him.

Raikou vs Temari

Temari finally stopped running and seemed to shake herself from her terror driven state of mind before she turned around prepared to head back to the fight. She was torn from that thought though by the bolt of electricity that shot up straight through the air in front of her causing her to reel back in an instinctive flinch away from the electricity. Glancing down revealed the dog that had terrified her so much standing near the trunk of the tree she was standing on looking up at her.

"Please don't make me have to fight you Temari. I don't want to have to destroy a fan I just made." The clone said.

Temari frowned before she looked back into the forest where her brother was. Her face set into determination as she took her fan off of her back and flicked it open. Her determined eyes drifted back down to Raikou who was now frowning at her.

"Don't try me Temari. You have no idea what the Pokemon weakness/strength chart is and I can assure you that trying to launch a Wind/Flying attack against an Electric type will not work. Especially since I figured out during your fight that there isn't really just chakra in that fan I helped make."

Temari's frown turned confused as took a quick glance at her fan before she looked back down and said "What the hell are you talking about? Of course there's just chakra in the fan."

"Is there?" Raikou asked with a raised eyebrow even as he started sparking. "I've seen the damage that thing did during your fight. There is no way that it is anywhere near as capable of such wide range destruction if it was just chakra in that fan."Temari's own eyebrow rose as she said "Oh, and what is in this fan then?"

"An energy that I still have no clue about where it comes from even after over three months of using it." Raikou answered even as more sparks formed covering half of its body.

Temari frowned again before she shrugged and said "Doesn't matter. Wind beats Lightning on the elemental cycle. You're the one at a disadvantage here."Raikou snorted and said "Really? Well if you're so sure and really want to fight, then lets test that theory!"

A bolt of electricity blasted out of Raikou's body towards Temari who quickly blasted out a burst of wind which blew straight towards the bolt of energy, only for the bolt of lightning to blast straight through the wind and continued on towards Temari. Temari's eyes widened and she barely made it out of the way.

"See? You've got the same kind of energy that I use for Pokemon attacks in that fan of yours." Raikou said. As Temari looked back at him in muted horror, sparks began to fly in the air as he said "When you use that fan, you're attacks are being turned from Wind style attacks to Flying type attacks. And while the change usually isn't anything to write home about, One key thing changes. Your strength and weakness profile. It's true that Wind beats Lightning. But with us, it's Electric beats Flying hands down. Maybe if you had a Ground or Rock type attack then you could win, but unfortunately, you don't have that advantage right now, meaning that this fight was as good as over before we even began."

As Raikou spoke, Temari started to shake as the clone let out an intent that was completely different from the previous intents used. It felt like a huge electrical storm was in the air, ionizing molecules to the point where the whole area would erupt in hundreds, if not thousands of lightning strikes with her right where one would hit.

Then Raikou's form became completely encased in electricity and he vanished from Temari's sight as he used the electricity to augment his already insane speed. The next instant, Temari felt the air behind her crackle as Raikou appeared behind her. After that everything went black as 6 milliamps briefly coursed through her body and knocked her unconscious.

As Temari's body locked up and then fell over the branch they were standing on, Raikou prepared to jump down after her to catch her when he saw a flash of brown before Temari's limp form landed across Entei's back. Looking up at his brother, the clone said "Tell me something brother, if I wasn't here and the branch you were in was ten or more feet lower, would you have caught her?"

Raikou jumped down and said as he landed next to his brother "That depends on what was under the tree. If it was sand or something soft like that, not likely. However, if it was regular ground like this, then in an instant."

The two Legendaries stared into each other's eyes before the Volcano Pokemon gave a short nod and turned around towards where their creator was fighting and the Thunder Pokemon fell in beside him.

"Speaking of catching our downed opponents, what happened to yours?" Raikou asked.

"Burnt his puppet and then smacked him into a tree. Once I saw that he was unconscious, I came here."

"Uh-huh. So the only difference between our fights was the fact that your opponent was already on the ground."

Entei shrugged and said "Details, details. I only knocked him up a bit. There was really almost no danger of the guy dieing."Raikou snorted and said "And we care about these two why? How many have we both killed today? Fifteen, thirty? We sound like hypocrites worrying about these two when we have so much blood already in our fur. What makes these two so different?"

Entei looked over his shoulder again and said "Maybe it's because of who their father is."

Raikou sighed and said "Is that the only reason that their lives have more value than all those others? Because of their lineage? It's that kind of thinking that caused the rift between the Main and Branch families of the Hyuga clan. Are we really that bigoted?"

Entei's eyes became disturbed as he said "I don't know brother, I really don't know."

Scene Change: Naruto vs Gaara Fight

While his clones were having a moral debate, Naruto and Charizard had been busy. Big shards of glass littered the floor under Gaara as the two launched their fifth flyby and left burning sand behind them. Having enough, Gaara waited for them to come back around as his form began glowing with a golden chakra and sand rushed up from the ground.

Naruto saw the glowing chakra and sand rushing to him and he quietly swore under his breath before he shouted "Take to the skies!"

He and Charizard turned upwards at as close to ninety degrees as they could while maintaining their speed. Below them, a wave of sand rushed by before turning and rushed after them. As the two Flame Pokemon shot past branches on their race to the sky with sand just ten feet after them, Naruto heard a sound that sounded like water flowing in a river but was somehow different. Coming out of the canopy and finally able to put their full speed to use, Naruto saw something that began to make him really nervous.

Where Gaara had been there was now a giant bulge of sand taking form into some kind of raccoon. Naruto didn't have time to worry about that though as the sand that was following them no longer needed to go through branches either and began to close the distance even with their newly freed use of their full speed. As the sand reached within a foot of him and his trainer, Charizard adjusted his wings so that he 'flipped' over on his x-axis and looked down as his mouth opened and he let loose with a Flare Blitz.

Flame poured out of Charizard's mouth and blasted into the sand instantly turning it into glass a whole lot faster than the Flamethrowers that he and his trainer had been first using. As the fire worked its way through the sand, the glass it had first formed began melting from the residential heat. Ten seconds later, the wave of sand that had rushed at him was turned into nothing but a giant puddle of molten glass.

Naruto nodded to Charizard in approval before jerking his head toward where Gaara was now encased in his shell of sand that was constantly refining itself into the shape of a raccoon dog. The two kept climbing for air until they were well over five hundred feet over the head of the raccoon. Once they were at the proper altitude, the two began a long curve that took them right over the mass of sand. As the two folded in their wings and began diving towards the sand, Naruto looked towards Charizard and said "Whatever you do, don't get caught."

Charizard gave a quick nod before the two looked forward and began to slightly open their wings so that they dodged the streams of sand that Gaara started to send after them. Four hundred feet into their dive, both divers opened their mouths and began blasting out Embers that rushed out in front of them and began making pit holes in the sand starting the slow process of turning it into glass.

Fifty feet from their target, the two stepped up their game and blasted out Fire Blasts that slammed into the sand leaving star shaped holes and continued on their way down towards the ground. One Fire Blast actually burned all the way through one of Gaara's arms and continued on the way through the air and slammed into the leg under it. Naruto and Charizard pulled out of their dives and skimmed the tree tops and made a wide looping turn as they continued to avoid the sand that Gaara continued to launch at them. As they came around for a second pass, the two saw sand traveling up the construct's legs pushing the glass out and replacing it.

"Really? He's got that much sand he can use?" Charizard asked with a sweat drop. Naruto sighed and said "Looks like we're going to have to take a different approach. Lets land, I'll make an army of clones and give that hunk of sand a bath."

Charizard nodded and the two dove down into the forest. Sand followed them but they eventually lost it as the sand gave up and went back towards the sand raccoon to help repair it. The two touched down on the ground about a hundred yards away and Naruto dropped his transformation and pulled two Pokeballs off his belt while Charizard kept on the watch for sand. As Naruto raised one of the Pokeballs towards Charizard, he looked over at him and said "Good luck."

"Thanks. Charizard, return."

Charizard disappeared in a flash of red light and Naruto clipped his Pokeball back onto his belt as Blastoise appeared in his own miniature light show. Blastoise looked towards where they knew Gaara was and said "So how do you plan on getting close?"

Naruto's eyes took on a gleam that Blastoise recognized as one that meant pain for his opponent as he said "Getting close won't be the problem. Finding Gaara once we're finished is going to be the hard part. Just stick with my clones and be ready to let loose with every drop of water you have."

Blastoise nodded and stepped back as a hundred clones popped into existence. Naruto made a quick sweep with his eyes to make sure he had all of their attention before he said "Go Psychic and Teleport to a distance of one hundred yards. Once I'm transformed, Teleport onto me and go Water. On my mark, we let loose with Hydro Cannons and hopefully that's end game. Make sure one of you takes Blastoise with you. Everyone understand?"

The clones nodded before transforming into various Psychic types before one of them placed a hand on Blastoise and all of them flashed out. Naruto unsealed his food pills and took a couple as he made sure that everyone was clear before he took a deep breath and dived deep into his now surging chakra reserves in preparation of what he was about to do. Ten seconds later, Naruto ran through the whole sequence for the Transformation Jutsu.

Naruto was covered in a fog bank of smoke before it cleared to reveal a massive creature that had pushed all of the trees around it off of it. Said creature was a Wailord, a massive eight hundred seventy seven and a half pound whale that was fifty feet tall and a good ten times as long with a blue top and a grey bottom. It had two fins that it used for propulsion and maneuvering and a third fin closer to its tail for stability. All in all, it looked similar to some of the submarines that the Land of Snow had been rumored to have made for underwater exploration and rescue. (Remember this for it will be important when I come back to this story.)

As Gaara's giant sand covered form turned towards him, Naruto felt the sensation of an insect landing on him multiplied by a hundred times. Naruto rolled his eyes upward out of instinct even though he knew he had practically no chance of seeing any of his clones as he said "I've got his legs, aim high and take out the rest."

"Hai!"

Naruto focused back on his target that he couldn't quite see and focused on the energy that he had discovered when he began learning how to perform Pokemon attacks. With a firm grip on the energy, Naruto shouted out "Surf!" while his clones and Blastoise roared out "Hydro Cannon!

A 50x50 wave rushed towards Gaara while over a hundred fire hose force streams of water rushed over it riddling the form with holes three seconds before the wave crashed into him. As the wave crashed into Gaara's torso, his legs were taken out, plain and simple. He dropped down to the forest floor even as Naruto's clones continuously blasted him with their Water attacks blowing holes into him to add onto his problem.

As soon as he knew the wave had done its job, Naruto collapsed it and watched through the torn forest as Gaara's form was completely washed away. Naruto's clones saw the same and all but one of them dispelled while the one next to Blastoise switched back to a Psychic type and flashed Blastoise to the ground before Naruto dropped his transformation.

Naruto sighed to himself as his last clone dispelled and Blastoise walked over. Naruto was in the process of jerking his head toward where Gaara should be when a loud roar pierced through the air. Trainer and Pokemon glanced at each other before they looked back to where the roar came from and saw a massive amount of sand rising up and forming into another raccoon construct.

As the construct finished forming, the raccoon opened its eyes and shouted out **"Yes! I'm free baby! Yahoo! Oooh, look a village! I'm gonna destroy it!"**

"Ah hell no! That should have drenched every grain of sand he could possibly use!" Blastoise shouted and Naruto sighed as he said "Looks like he's let his inner demon out to play. Blastoise, don't take this the wrong way, but I want you back in your Pokeball. This is probably going to get really ugly and I don't want you getting caught in the fight."

Blastoise nodded knowing that while he may be more mobile than the sand demon, it had a lot more control of said sand then Gaara did. As soon as Blastoise was safe in his Pokeball Naruto popped another soldier pill into his mouth and transformed. As Shukaku began his march towards the village, he never noticed a Legendary shoot out of the artificial clearing and head straight towards his side as clouds began to form overhead. But then Naruto announced his presence.

"Storm Surge!"

The clouds let loose their payload of torrential rains which only added power to the two hundred foot wave that roared at Shukaku at speeds the demon had no chance of dodging.

"**What?"** Shukaku asked as he turned his head only to get slammed into by the massive wave and toppled over and dragged along for about a hundred feet. Naruto collapsed the wave and looked down into the new, even bigger artificial clearing in the forest and briefly saw a small spot of red inside a dune of wet sand before the sand began to reform at a massive rate.

As Naruto began cursing to himself rather loudly, five hundred yards away towards the Leaf village, Kankuro's eyes were wide in shock as he thought 'How can a bird that's only seventeen feet tall take on such a huge creature?'

Said seven foot tall bird was a fine example of what a Lugia had looked like back when Pokemon were still the majority of Earth's animal population. It was mostly white with a blue underbelly with blue 'spikes' jutting out from its back and a blue mask like covering over its eyes. At the end of its wings were a group of feathers that looked extremely similar to fingers.

Fifteen hundred yards away in the opposite direction, Entei and Raikou were standing on the branches of one of the few trees in the area that wasn't either knocked down, burning, or covered in sand. Over Entei's flank, Temari was still unconscious but was beginning to show signs of stirring. She would probably be awake in a minute at most. However, the two clones would worry about what to do with her later as for now they were watching Naruto fly up into the storm clouds.

Glancing out of the corner of his eye to his brother, Raikou said "Looks like Boss was right. When we want too, we can instinctively use the Legendary attacks even though we never used them before. I mean, I just know what to do for Raikou's Thunder Blitz."

Entei nodded and said "And I can tell exactly what I'm supposed to do to use Entei's Giga Eruption. Feels weird knowing how to perform an attack exactly without actually practicing it."

Raikou nodded even as the two clones heard a shout of "Storm Surge!" come from in the clouds and the torrential rain briefly turned into a river less waterfall as hundreds of gallons of water fell down at once thoroughly drenching Shukaku's form. Shukaku squawked like a chicken just before the water slammed down on him and washed all of his sand in different directions.

As the sand began to reform, a soft groan was heard from Entei's back and the two clones looked over their shoulder at Temari who was now staring at the two Legendaries in confusion which quickly turned into panic. That panic had no chance of getting any steam though as a massive tornado torn through the clouds and slammed into the sand construct that had taken the brief pause between exploded water tower and tornado to reform halfway.

Temari stared at the bird that was at the point of the tornado spinning at insane speeds before it opened its wings and shot out of the tornado it had made and made a high g turn back to the construct and let loose with a Hydro Cannon.

The combined force of the winds throwing grains everywhere and even more water pouring onto the sand made it even harder for the sand to reform. This was made apparent as the construct took a full two minutes to reform again instead of the thirty seconds that it took the other two times.

Raikou sighed and said "This is getting us nowhere."Entei nodded and said "True, but what else can he do?"

Temari was meanwhile staring at Naruto as he hovered in front of the construct ready to disperse it again with another blast of water. The only other person that she knew to be able to hold back the Shukaku in such a way was her father and his gold dust.

She was brought out of her stunned musing as the construct finished forming and glared at Naruto who was hovering a 'safe' distance away from him.

"**Damn it birdie! Let me have my fun! I just want to destroy that village over there, is that too much to ask? I've been locked up for so long, can't a guy enjoy his freedom?"** Shukaku asked in a whiney voice.

Naruto looked the sand demon in the eye for two seconds before he said "No. Hydro Pump!" A blast of water erupted out of his mouth and slammed into Shukaku's head forcing it up from the pressure as Naruto kept the water running for a good minute eroding away at the neck. When he was finished, Shukaku reached up to where his head was bent at a full one hundred and ten degrees back and jerked it back into place and glared at Naruto and opened his mouth to yell at the annoying bird before he got a face full of another Hydro Pump.

In the trees, Temari and Kankuro had sweat drops while Entei and Raikou howled with laughter as Naruto continued to blast the demon with Hydro Pumps every time the demon opened his mouth to say something and easily dodging the streams of sand that was sent his way.

This was the scene Sasuke finally came across . Staring at the display of Naruto's 'casual ultimate power', Sasuke gritted his teeth and clenched his fist as he thought 'Damn it! Look at him! Facing down a creature five times taller than him and he doesn't have a care in the world. I need the kind of power he has. I'm certain now that it is the only way to beat Itachi!'

"Okay, this is just ridiculous. Just go back into Gaara's mind or wherever you came from because this is just embarrassing." Naruto said as he shot a Water Gun into Shukaku's left eye. Shukaku howled in rage and pain and tried to rush Naruto and swat him out of the sky only for Naruto to shoot up out of range and shoot water into the other eye. The now temporarily blinded biju grabbed at his eyes with one hand while the other began to blindly swipe around in the air.

Naruto sighed before he cut the flailing arm with a Hydro Pump and said "Seriously pal, if you don't chill out, I'm going to have to go ultimate water fight on you, and you won't like that." His response was the sand construct yelling in even more rage and the other arm beginning to swat in his direction. Sighing again, Naruto opened his mouth and said "Such a baby. Hydro Pump!"

Multiple Hydro Cannons rushed out and began punching holes through the biju's form. Naruto kept it up until Shikaku was on the floor with more water in his body then sand even after three tries to get more sand out of the ground of the forest which was starting to look like a pit mine right now. Shukaku raised his head weakly and looked out of the hole he had carved into the ground and ground out **"I'm going to destroy you, rip you to shreds and feast on the remains."**

Naruto's response was to switch focus briefly to Shukaku's head and turn his lower jaw into Swiss cheese before he continued blasting holes into the main body. Eventually, the demon finally couldn't take anymore punishment while outside of his native environment and the rest of the sand suddenly just collapsed leaving a thoroughly drenched Gaara who slowly opened his eyes.

"Well that was an anticlimactic fight." Raikou deadpanned as he and his brother began to hop down to the forest floor. Temari rushed past them both but the two didn't do anything as they took a more sedate pace to where their creator was.

Naruto meanwhile had landed about ten feet away from Gaara and dropped his transformation as he walked towards Gaara. As Gaara looked at him with wide eyes and began scrambling backwards, Naruto said "You have one seriously stubborn bastard inside of you, you know that right?"

"S-Stay away from me! I won't be denied my existence!" Gaara was practically shrieking at Naruto with fear rampant in his eyes. Naruto sighed as he reached Gaara and flicked him on the forehead sending the Sand Jinchuriki onto his back who continued to stare up at Naruto in absolute horror. Naruto raised his fist and Gaara flinched before the sound of flesh hitting sound was heard.

Gaara opened his eyes and saw the fist right beside his head in the wet sand. Looking back up at Naruto, he said "You're not going to kill me?"

Naruto scoffed and said "And why would I kill someone who was like me? I've followed my orders and kept you from doing harm to my village. And my clones and I have killed enough people today. I don't see the point of getting any more blood on my hands when you're no longer a threat to my village in your current state."

Naruto paid no attention to Kankuro who had by that time jumped down into the massive hole their battle had created and rushed to his brother. He paid even less attention as he heard Temari come from the other direction. He did however stop when he heard Gaara's voice again.

"Wait. Please, tell me how you are so strong."

Naruto turned around with a raised eyebrow and said "There are many reasons why I'm so strong. One of them is knowing that my partners have my back. Another is having people I want to protect. And yet another is that I've worked my butt of to get where I am."

Gaara looked confused and asked "People you want to protect?"

Naruto's eyebrow rose back up and he said "Is it really that foreign of a concept for you? Just look at your siblings right now, even though you scare the living daylights out of them, they're still willing to keep you safe from me while you're like that. Find someone who you want to protect and you'll find that you'll be not only better in a fight but a better person in general."

By that time, Naruto's clones had rejoined him and Naruto hopped onto Entei's back before he turned back to Gaara and said "One last thing you should think about Gaara. If you kill everyone around you to prove your existence, then who will be there to acknowledge that you're still there?"

Naruto let his body slump over Entei's shoulders since he was now thoroughly exhausted and the two Legendaries nodded to each other before they rushed to the side of the hole towards the village and began jumping out leaving behind a fellow Jinchuriki who had a lot to think about. As the two clones left the hole, they didn't notice Sasuke in his tree looking down with an unidentifiable expression on his face.

Scene Change: Valley Of The End

Tired and wounded Sound shinobi leapt across the river that marked the northern border of the Land of Fire as they rushed to get back to their base in the Land of Rice where they wouldn't have to fight a battle of life and death against several monsters. If the groups were five or less strong, they disappeared in multiple flashes of light. What none of the rest of the frantic shinobi noticed as they slowed down slightly once over the border were the seemingly normal looking birds that followed them.

As one particular Sound nin came upon the border and jumped over the canyon hours after everyone had already made it halfway through the Rice country on their way back to their base, ten blasts of electricity shot up from the river and slammed into the nin before said nin erupted in smoke and a shattered boulder began the descent down into the river.

The nin reappeared on the river bank on the Fire side and saw ten figures that were currently three feet seven with yellow fur that had a black lightning bolt on the front of their bodies and black stripes running across the rest of their body.

As one of the Electabuzz clones stepped forward, the nin's hair stood up as the clone got closer and the electricity that its body was constantly discharged began to give the white haired youth a seriously bad hair day.

"You know, if there's one thing Boss hates, it's a traitor. Did you know that, Kabuto?"

Said ninja pushed the glasses further up his nose, causing them to gain a glint in the sunlight as Kabuto said "Oh? I can't imagine why."

The clones' eyes all narrowed as the lead clone frowned at Kabuto and said "And I can't imagine why you would betray the Leaf village. But I guess we can't know everything now can we? " All ten clones made hand signs before they were covered in smoke. Kabuto rose an eyebrow before he ducked under an overhead round house kick and leapt away from the Lucario that followed him. A quick glance over at the other clones showed that they had transformed into other types of Pokemon that looked like one should seriously consider their sanity if they decided to get into a Taijutsu fight with them.

As the Fighting type clones began to encircle him, Kabuto sighed before his hands began to glow a medic-jutsu green. A split second later, the clones erupted into action as they fought to bring down a traitor.


	19. Search And Retrieve Part One

19. Search And Retrieve Part One

_The sky erupted in blue flashes as him and his brothers teleported above the village. They examined the village identifying targets as they allowed gravity to take hold and dropped like a stone before they transformed. Naruto could only watch as he transformed into a Salamence and began his attack run on the enemies of his village. His enemies' faces grimaced in terror as he began roasting them alive. He wanted to pull up, to stop his attack, but he kept going. Then his body blinked and he was a Scyther, a storm of blades tearing through enemy shinobi like tissue paper as they screamed and tried to fight back, tried to run, tried to do anything to prevent their deaths, but it was all for nothing. He waded through their bodies covered in their blood laughing at their futile attempts._

_Just as he took a Sound nin's head off he blinked again and was a Raikou running down the village wall. As soon as his feet hit terra firma, he let loose with a bark that terrified his victims before his fangs started sparking and he shot for the jugular of the first shinobi in front of him. His prey screamed in agony as volt upon volt surged through his body before he ripped out the man's windpipe forever silencing him. He then dodged a kunai that was thrown at him before he sent a lightning bolt at the enemy who threw it sending it straight through his heart._

_He blinked and was suddenly a Sceptile that was traveling through the treetops looking down on a team of three Rain shinobi. Grinning, he shot down through their formation easily beheading the two in the back before he landed on a tree branch below them. Turning around, he saw the final nin staring at him in confusion and he grinned before he shot back up and slammed his tail into him. Landing on another branch, he turned and began walking over to his final victim with the blade on his arm starting to glow. He swung his arm and as it got closer to the nin's neck he saw his eyes widen in fear before-_

"Gaah!"

Naruto shot up from his bed in a cold sweat breathing heavily. He panted for a moment before he heard "Finally, we've been trying to wake you up for ten minutes!" "You must have been having one hell of a nightmare."

Naruto got his breathing under control and looked around him. He was currently in the first bed he ever owned which was in the center of his new bedroom that he had made out of the abandoned apartment across the hall from his. On either side of his bed and at the bottom were what looked like rather large doggy beds only ten times more comfortable and specially made with certain Pokemon in mind with his partners standing in them looking at him concerned.

"Naruto, are you alright?" Venusaur asked him as one of his vines came up and pressed itself against his forehead. "You seem to be running a bit of a fever."

Naruto shook his head slightly and said "Just a nightmare. A really bad nightmare." Looking at the alarm clock on the dresser by the door, he saw that it was currently just past two thirty in the morning.

"What was it about?" Charizard asked in concern.

Naruto shuddered and said "Yesterday. I was seeing all of the kills my clones made and no matter how much I wanted to stop them they kept killing everybody. It just kept repeating over and over."

The three Pokemon traded looks before Venasaur's vine shot over to the closet Naruto had built and grabbed a pair of his pants and a shirt before tossing them to him as he said "Here, I think you need to go on a walk, try to clear your head, if nothing else, we can see that head shrink again. He did say that there would be someone at his office at all hours if you have a relapse."

Naruto nodded his thanks as he began getting changed. The night of the prelims day he had gone to the psychological ward of the hospital for his 'first kill' session that all shinobi had to go to after their first kill. Naruto had been glad that the Leaf had such a procedure since he had suffered from nightmares after he absorbed the Sceptile clone's memories of killing the Rain team. But tonight's nightmare was easily a hundred times worse and he could use the help of a mind healer right now. Once dressed, he recalled his partners and clipped their Pokeballs to his waist before he transformed into a small green bird Pokemon called Natu and teleported.

Reappearing in front of the doors to the Hidden Leaf Village's hospital, he dropped his transformation and walked through the doors. Walking to the right past the receptionist desk, he followed the right hand corridor for about twenty feet before he turned right at the first intersection. The new hallway was only ten feet long and only had one door at the end labeled Mental Counseling in big letters on the glass pane set in it.

As he opened the door, the secretary in front of the log in station looked up for a moment before she looked back down and said "Mr. Uzumaki, the night shift department head has been expecting you after yesterday's events. He's currently in his office catching up on his paperwork."

Naruto quickly thanked her before he walked past with his new destination in mind. Reaching the office after a quick minute of walking through the department that was half as small as most other departments due to it's area of focus, Naruto came to the head's office and knocked on the door.

The department head, a Yamanaka who went by the nickname of Sapere opened the door and said "Ah Naruto, I was wondering when you would come in after what happened during the exams, come on in." He stood to the side to allow Naruto to come in and returned to his desk. As Naruto sat in the chair in front of the desk, Sapere said "Now, what is the primary effect we're dealing with right now, flashback or dream?"

Time Skip: Thirty Minutes Later

Naruto walked out of the Mental Counseling department with a slight spring in his step. Thanks to Sapere he was confident in the fact that his dreams wouldn't be turning into his clone's memories parading themselves around his dreamscape like some demented parade again. He had never been so glad to have a shrink messing with his head. And what a shrink the guy was.

Urahon 'Sapere' Yamanaka was one of the clan's best when it came to mental blocks. He could make a person completely forget a memory with absolutely no hope of ever recovering it even with the help of another mind walker or just set it so that a person could only remember the memory under certain circumstances. And he had gotten so good at it that he didn't even need to actually perform a full mind walk in the target's mind scape. All he had to do was get the person to think about the memory or memories that he wanted to block off while he had his hand touching their forehead and Presto! One set of memories blocked with a set of custom circumstantial locks on them.

Now thanks to him, the memories of the invasion and what happened in the forest would now never bother Naruto again subconsciously and would only come up when his mind was actively searching for them. After he was done, Naruto had asked why the shrinks didn't do that sort of thing for everybody but felt stupid as soon as the question was out of his mind and immediately answered himself saying that it would probably cripple the shinobi's fighting force if nobody got past their first kills properly. The only reason Sapere had did so with Naruto along with his rather vast array of 'invasion memories' was the fact that it was tied to them due to it being what Sapere had termed as 'Pokemon induced kill counts', and even then it had a slightly different lock than the other ones.

Now secure in the fact that those memories wouldn't rear their ugly heads at an unfortunate time, Naruto walked out of the hospital before transforming and teleporting back home hoping to get a few more hours of sleep before the 'start' of the day.1

Time Skip: 8:30

Naruto and his partners were interrupted from the last few bites of their breakfast when a messenger Chunin used the messaging seal that acted as a mental buzzer he had placed at the entrance of the very sparsely populated building to get his attention. A quick teleport later saw him standing five feet to the right of the Chunnin who jumped in surprise of the blue flash but was able to gather his wits and tell him that the Hokage wanted to see him in his office as soon as possible before taking off back to the Hokage Tower after Naruto thanked him.

Teleporting back to his partners, they quickly finished their meal before Naruto recalled them and teleported to in front of the door inside the Old Man's office. His slightly cheerful greeting that he was planning on giving died before even leaving his mind at the site of Jiraiya and he scowled as he said "Old Man, I really hope you're not planning on coupling me and my partners with this creep for whatever you want me for. Because if so then I can tell you tight now that there's probably going to be blood at some point if I catch him being perverted in any way around me." His sentence was punctuated by his annoyed intent which had taken on the edge of a fighting type ready to swat an annoyance away into a nearby wall with a backhand to the face.

Jiraiya's eyes narrowed and Sarutobi coughed at the rather specific intent Naruto was unconsciously giving off before he cleared his throat and said "Unfortunately I'm afraid that is what I'm doing Naruto since you two have things that will contribute heavily to your mission's success." Sighing, Sarutobi briefly closed his eyes for a moment before he opened them and said "As you know Naruto, none of us ever get an younger, and I'm practically considered ancient in this world of ours. I need to find someone who I can trust to protect this village when I'm no longer able to. For that we need to find the Fifth Hokage."

Sarutobi stood up from his desk and walked over to the window that showed the Hokage Monument. Staring at it for a long minute, Sarutobi sighed again as he said "The list of people who I could potentially entrust the safety and running of this village to is a very small list indeed. You have a possible spot on the list yourself, but only as a side note at the very end right now as possibly the sixth or seventh Hokage since you still have much to learn in your career before you could successfully manage such a task." Naruto nodded showing that he agreed since he wasn't even a Chunnin yet. He continued to give his full attention as Sarutobi said "There are five people on this rather short list, my son Asuma, who was once a member of the Twelve Guardians, the Daimyo's group of shinobi protectors. There's your sensei Kakashi, who despite his 'quirks' is still recognized in all of the shinobi countries as a force to be reconed with. Maito Gai is in the same boat. Then there is Jiraiya here who is one of the Sannin. And finally, one of my other students, Tsunade, also a Sannin and said to be the best medic of our time. However, all of them have things that make them not one hundred percent qualified to take this hat. Asuma doesn't have the right mindset yet for the job. And while both Kakashi and Gai can be absolutely serious when the time comes, being so full time like the job requires would drive both even further up the wall than they currently are. Jiraiya here has a spy network he has to maintain and he can't be shackled to one place in order to properly run it. Which leaves Tsunade, who hasn't been in the village for over a decade and will probably be almost impossible to convince to return."

Sighing yet again, Sarutobi went back to his desk and sat down. Putting his hands together in front of him and resting his chin on top, he said "But we desperately need her back so you ARE going to have to convince her. But first you have to find her. Which is where you will be coming in Naruto." Nodding to a bag on his desk that looked like it was sealed at least three times which contained a Hidden Leaf Village forehead protector, Sarutobi said "This was once Tsunade's before she gave it back to me the day before she left. I don't expect you to be able to track her with it straight out of the gate but you will at least be able to recognize her scent when you get within tracking range. That is going to be Jiraiya's job, using his spy network to get you close enough on her trail to get a good lock on her."

Naruto picked up the evidence bag even as he sighed in annoyance at being sent on a mission with the pervert before he cocked his head to the side and said "When we catch up to her, do you want me to send a clone to Teleport you to our position? I'm sure the lady's old teacher would have a better shot at convincing her to return than this pathetic pervert ever would."

"Hey, I resent that remark you little!" Jiraiya shouted before he fell silent as Sarutobi rose a hand.

"Your idea is sound Naruto. Once you find Tsunade, send a clone back to the village and I will send one of my own on its return trip. With luck, we will then have Tsunade back in the village walls within twenty four hours. Now, time is not necessarily our ally in this matter so I suggest you leave as soon as possible. Dismissed."

The two turned and walked out of the office. Once Jiraiya had closed the door, Naruto spun around from his position in front and spoke in a calm voice that belied the sheer _contempt_ he held for the man as he said "Listen well Toad Sage. I will work with you on this mission as professionally as possible. But if I get even a _hint_ of you doing anything funny when it comes to the opposite of our sex, I will telekinetically crucify you, rip out both of your testacles, and then rip the remaining bits of your _tool_ out via your mouth after pushing it through your digestive tract. Am Iunderstood?"

Jiraiya gulped knowing that the blond was being absolutely serious and actually had the means to carry out his threat before he quickly nodded and said "Absolutely."

"Good." Naruto said nodding once before turning back around to leave the tower throwing over his shoulder "I will be waiting for you at the main gate in one hour. Do not be late." And with that acting as his 'by your leave', the blond transformed into a Gallade and teleported back to his apartment.

Scene Change: Village Hidden in the Sound Base

In a hallway that led to one of the base's cafeterias, a ghost type rose up from the floor and studied the currently empty hallway. Grinning to itself, the Gengar clone thought 'If you want to sabotage a base to be the most effective without having to deal with pesky security measures, then going after the occupant's food supply has got to be in the top five.' Walking over to the wall on its right, it placed its hand on the wall and willed a small portion of chakra to be expelled and to change into a seal that was the same color as the wall.

Grinning at the feeling of the seal going into 'standby' mode, the clone's grin grew as he thought 'Contact sealing is so worth the army of us that boss made to study sealing properly.' The clone then sunk back into the floor to head off to other key areas to set up other seals. While he worked, he passed other clones who were doing their own tasks to cripple the enemy base. When the time came to begin eradicating everyone and everything here in a few days the only thing that would be left would be a giant sink hole.

Scene Change: Hidden Leaf Village Gates

Naruto stared out over the forest from where he was perched as a Pidgeot on the corner of the left gate wondering where his clones that had crossed the border yesterday were and what they were doing to make the people's lives that they were tracking an absolute hell. With any luck, they had already located the enemy's base of operations and was getting ready to completely tear it apart.

He was brought from his musings about the clone task force he had sent off yesterday by the rather out of place sound of geta sandals coming down the road towards the gate. Turning his head towards the village, he saw a long mane of white hair threading its way through the crowd and he sighed as he thought 'Guess my time of peace is over.' Turning so that he was facing the inside of the gate, he allowed his body to fall over the side and free fell for just under ten seconds before his wings snapped open and began flapping halting his fall less than a foot from the ground.

Dropping his transformation and landing in a crouch, he looked over at Jiraiya and said "Sure took your time getting here Sage." Standing up from his crouch, Naruto said "Where are we going first?"

"A place called Fun Fun Avenue. It's where the second in command of my spy network resides and where we'll get the general direction of Tsunade's current position."

"Sounds like either a fun park or a pervert's heaven." Naruto said with a frown on his face.

Smirking, Jiraiya said "Which is why it is not so odd for me to go there regularly. Now come on, if we hurry, we can get there by nightfall."

The man sprinted out of the gate and Naruto sighed before following. Unknown to him, two men in black cloaks with red clouds entered the village not five minutes after he left site of his home.

Scene Change: With Kakashi

Kakashi sighed to himself as he leaned against the tea house he had told Sasuke he would meet him at. He had been planning on having Naruto join as well since he was going to begin Naruto on elemental training while he had Sasuke begin on the second exercise for lightning manipulation. Kakashi thought that if the blond had some more 'normal' jutsu in his repertoire he wouldn't have to worry about not being able to perform a good chunk of his 'attack jutsu' just because he wasn't transformed into the right Pokemon type. That part of the plan had met a rather efficient death courtesy of Naruto telling him that he had been assigned a mission with Jiraiya of the Sannin by the Hokage to go Senju hunting.

Sighing again, he thought 'It seems lately all I've been doing is just teaching Sasuke. Naruto has his rather unique skills thanks to his partners and that transformation technique of his and so I can't help him much, and Sakura doesn't even have enough chakra to be taken seriously in a one on one fight so I've had to keep her on chakra control exercises to get her chakra reserves to acceptable levels. This really can't continue. If it does this team is going to fall to pieces when we start taking missions together again.'

He was brought out of his melancholy thoughts when he saw Kurenai and Asuma walking towards him rather close together and he grinned at the sudden chance to embarrass his fellow Jounin instructors. Still grinning, he said "Yo! My, you two look so chummy, are you guys on a date?"

Kurenai instantly blushed a little as she said "No, Anko asked me to buy her some Dango."

Grin getting even bigger, Kakashi said "Oh so it's Anko you only have eyes for Kurenai?"

Kurenai's blush got even bigger at the implication and she snarled "Of course not! I don't swing that way you damn scarecrow!"

"Meh, if you say so." The scarecrow said taking way too much pleasure in messing with the rookie Jounin.

Said Jounin growled, but thankfully for the scarecrow's health Asuma joined the conversation as he said "What about you, what are you doing here? I thought you didn't like sweets."

Kakashi's grin turned into his rumored to be patented eyes smile as he said "Well, believe it or not, I'm actually waiting for one of my cute little Genin. Sasuke, actually." Behind him, he felt one of the two men sitting at the table in the tea house set the tea cup he was about to drink from down on the table with a clunk without even taking a sip.

"That's a rare sight, for YOU to be waiting for someone…" Asuma said as all three looked at the two men sitting at the table who were extremely suspicious looking considering they were almost completely covered up with their cloaks and large hats. And that wrapped bundle by the one with the blue hands was obviously a rather large blade and wasn't helping matters either.

The Gennin they were talking about chose that time to announce his entrance as he said "Whoa, Kakashi, you showed up before me?"

As his fellow instructors snickered at that question, Kakashi gave a mock pout as he said "I can be on time once in a while can't I?"

The two men suddenly leaving caught Sasuke's attention and he finally noticed just _where_ Kakashi had asked to meet him. Frowning, he said "I don't like natto or sweet things."

"Really?" Kakashi asked before he glanced at Kurenai and Asuma out of the corner of his eye. The two nodded and took off after the two men in a burst of speed that made it look like they just disappeared to anyone Gennin level or below. Sasuke only caught their leaving due to the better than usual eye sight the Sharingan gives it's wielders even before they unlocked it. What he didn't see was the cloaked figure behind them frown before he melted into the crowd following them.

Time Skip: Twenty Five Minutes

"Kakashi, what's going on? One moment he's talking, the next you hit the ground." Asuma said sweating from the stress of not knowing what was going on due to the fact that he and Kurenai had their eyes closed in order to avoid looking at Itachi's new eyes. As Asuma's eyes flickered underneath their lids, Kakashi said "Don't open your eyes! It'll be the last thing you do."

"Hm, I'm impressed. Even after that, this fool's still actually conscious. But should you have really done that Itachi? You know you shouldn't use those eyes of yours too much." Kisame said glancing at his partner in very slight concern as he changed his Sharingan back to normal.

Itachi was silent causing Kisame to let out a soft snort before both of their attention was drawn to Kakashi as he said "This thing that you said you're seeking, is it Sasuke?"

Itachi stared at Kakashi's panting form for a moment before he said "No…the legacy of the Fourth Hokage."

All three leaf Jounin stiffened in shock as Kakashi said "The fourth's legacy? That means that you are after the Kyuubi in Naruto aren't you? I was hoping that Jiraiya was wrong, but it seems that he was right. It's not just the Kyuubi and you two is it? You're going after all of them, and you have help doing it."

Itachi's eyes narrowed as Kisame muttered under his breath to Itachi "How the hell did any information about us get out? I thought Zetsu and Sasori made sure no information about us spread."

"There is only one way to find out with any certainty. Kisame, we're taking Kakashi with us. Make the other two disappear." Itachi answered.

Grinning, Kisame launched himself towards the three with Samahada ready to shred Kurenai and Asuma to pieces. However, as soon as he got halfway there, a cloaked figure suddenly appeared with both of its feet in his face as the figure kicked back sending him flying back towards Itachi as the figure performed a back flip in the air and landed in a crouch in front of Kakashi. Kisame landed from his short flight just in front of Itachi and skidded before he was able to shift to a crouch as he shouted "Who did that?"

"That would be me." The figure said rising from his own crouch.

"And you are?" Itachi asked with a stoic voice.

The figure pushed his hood back revealing the face of a Lucario that was smirking at Itachi even as his eyes were closed as he said "Oh nobody important, just a shadow clone transformed into one of the boss' favorite fighting forms. Now what's this I hear about you looking for my good friend Naruto?"

"They want him for the Kyuubi. But what I wand to know is what YOU are still doing in the village Lucario?" Kakashi asked between pants as he struggled to maintain consciousness.

'Looking' over his shoulder, Lucario said "Boss was worried that not everybody left the party yesterday, so he ordered a squadron of us to sweep the village using our aura sight. Now care to explain just what the hell happened to you?"

"A very powerful torture Genjutsu that Itachi used his advanced Sharingan to create." Kakashi managed to pant out before he suddenly slumped down face forward into the water.

The Lucario sighed as he stepped back and dipped his right foot into the water and hooked it under Kakashi's body. Kicking it up into the air and grabbing his the teacher of his creator's collar, he handed him over to Kurenai as he said "You two can open your eyes. Miss Kurenai, please take him to the medics. Asuma, I'll leave the big blue guy to you. Just whatever you do, don't look towards Itachi. If you do, look only at his feet to avoid eye contact."

"Do you plan to take on Itachi just by yourself? He's one of the worst criminals from our village, you don't stand a chance." Kurenai said frowning.

Smirking, the clone said "I don't need to take him down Miss Kurenai. Just hold them off until Kakashi's rival gets here with that squadron of ANBU that I can sense five minutes out. Besides, I'm a shadow clone remember? What are you worrying about me for?"

"Hah! You're bluffing! I'm not sensing anyone in such a large group coming this way." Kisame said walking to stand beside his partner again.

"You wouldn't. They're doing a pretty good job of keeping their chakra below detection levels. But they have absolutely no training in hiding their auras." Lucario said frowning at his chosen opponent even as rebuked the other enemy's words.

"Whether he is bluffing or not, we are leaving. We did not come to start a war Kisame." Itachi said.

"Oh I don't think so. Activate the Trick Room!" Lucario shouted.

As everyone wondered what the clone was shouting for, grid lines suddenly appeared surrounding the clone, Asuma, Itachi, and Kisame in a cube of intersecting lines that seemed to somehow rapidly expand making the figures inside shrink while leaving Kurenai who was outside unaffected.

"Welcome to the Trick Room, a TM that our boss had our Psychic brothers learn before we started sweeping the village. Anything in its range gets its dimensions changed to the user's wanted shape." Lucario said before a Mewtwo clone flashed in with Teleport to stand next to Kurenai and continued "And right now, I don't want you guys going anywhere so there's currently about a mile on all sides around you in that room."

Asuma took the time between that explanation to shoot over towards Kisame with his trench knives humming and Lucario felt that was enough explanation and shot towards his opponent as well in a burst of aura augmented speed even as he brought his hands to his side and shot an Aura Sphere at the Uchiha. Itachi jumped to the side to avoid the blue sphere even as he kept his face from showing his shock at not being able to copy the mysterious jutsu with Sharingan which would have told him just what it would have done to him.

He didn't have long to ponder on that mystery though since the clone was already in his face with a right fist shooting towards his fist at what looked like terminal velocity. Itachi's own fist came up to catch it but he was surprised when the clone turned his fist down and he had to sidestep in order to avoid impaling the palm of his hand on the spike on top of his opponent's hand. As he stepped to the side, he launched a round housed kick at his opponent only for him to do the same and their legs slammed against each other pushing them a short distance away from each other. To Itachi's slight consternation, his opponent had done all this with his eyes still closed. He would understand if the guy was just going off watching his feet, but to move like that without his site at all while using jutsu that he couldn't copy was slightly worrying.

Deciding to get some reach, Itachi drew the standard issue Ninjato that he kept from his ANBU days and channeled fire natured chakra in it causing it to glow white hot. But to his shock, when the Lucario looked at the sword, he threw his head back and began laughing as he said "You think that scares me? Oh man, you don't get around much do you? Here, since you obviously can't do that weird Genjjutsu you used on Kakashi again without ruining your eyes, allow me to show you what a real weapon that uses fire looks like." Taking a chakra jump back to get more distance, the clone made a hand sign and shouted "Transform!" The clone erupted into smoke before it reappeared drastically changed. Gone was the thin and lithe form of a Lucario. In it's place was a five foot three figure weighing in at a hundred and forty nine point nine pounds decked out in red yellow and orange with red flame guards on its shoulders and a burning fire on top of its head. Both of its arms ended in rather large hollow barrels that had flaps in them to act like hands. Grinning, the newly transformed clone pointed its right 'hand' at Itachi and said "May I introduce you to the Magmortar, the evolved form of a Magmar, capable of blasting out fireballs that are over thirty six hundred degrees Fahrenheit. And that's not counting when I use this neat little trick. Ability Activate: Flame Body!"

The clone's body erupted into white hot flames with a fwooshing sound causing everybody in the vicinity to cover their eyes and look away and the water surrounding the clone to begin rapidly evaporating. As Itachi struggled to look towards his opponent, the clone lifted his left arm and said "Consider this your last day on earth traitor. Overheat!" The hole in Magmortar's arm began glowing white for a split second before a super powered stream of white fire blasted its way out of the arm expanding into a circular stream over ten feet wide as it roared across the distance of fifteen feet in less than a second easily overtaking Itachi's position while evaporating all of the water underneath its path. As the blast died down, everyone stared at the fires that were still burning on top of the water.

As everyone else was distracted, the clone lifted his right arm at four thirty and said "Nice try, but I can feel your body heat. Flamethrower." A blue colored flame shout out of his right arm and forced Itachi to jump to the side from where he had reappeared from underwater behind the clone with flaming sword ready to stab into him in order to avoid it slamming into his face.

As Itachi rapidly got out of the way, the clone turned his body to bring his left arm right in front of his opponent's face and said "Try this on for size emo boy. Lava Plume!" A fountain of lava shot out of his arm and slammed into Itachi's face at point blank range causing the young adult to scream in pain before he burst into a flock of crows. Turning to face his new three o'clock position, the clone said "I have to admit, that is one of the most unusual replacements I have ever seen." Getting no response from the stoic Uchiha, the Magmortar cocked his head and said "Not one for battle banter are you?"

Itachi was saved from answering when the Mewtwo clone said "Brother, Anbu's here!" Everyone's eyes snapped over to the other clone where Maito Gai was studying the two members of Akastuski with serious eyes even as he glanced at the grid lines of the Trick Room. Standing around the parameters of the room were twelve ANBU, each of them looking ready to do their best to tear the two intruders to pieces.

Itachi's eyes narrowed at the site of them and he said "Kisame regroup. We are leaving this village."

As Kisame disengaged from his fight with Asuma and jumped to his side, The Magmortar clone rose an eyebrow and said "And how do you plan to do that when you're inside a Trick Room with a ring of Anbu just waiting for you to get out?"

Itachi said nothing as his Sharingan morphed into its Mangekyo form and the two disappeared in a spinning vortex. Magmortar blinked before he said "I didn't realize anything could just leave a Trick Room like that once it was activated."

"They shouldn't be able to. I have no idea how they did." Mewtwo said as he dropped said room returning the dimensions back to normal. Frowning, he said "Boss needs to know he's got two S ranks gunning for him." The clone dispersed itself in a burst of smoke sending his creator the memories of what happened. Naruto was going to have to be on his guard if he had those two on his tail.

Magmortar frowned before he dropped his transformation returning to his 'default' form and said "Things are getting really hectic around here. And I don't like it one bit."

Chapter End

1 I am convinced that a shinobi village would have such a procedure in place if only to keep the drop out rates low so if any of you are complaining about Naruto getting over all those kills then you can stuff it because it does make sense.


	20. Search And Retrieve Part Two

20. Search And Retrieve Part Two

Story Start: En Route To Fun Fun Avenue

Naruto blinked as his clone's memories made their presence known. He frowned as he went over all of the details of the fight that just finished and he thought 'Two S class after me and other Jinchuriki? And not just them either by the looks of it. That can't be good.' Looking to his side where Jiraiya was running next to him, he said "Toad Sage, you're a spy master right?"

Said sage looked to the side in surprise since neither had said a word after leaving the village but nodded and said "Yeah, what of it?"

"Does your spy network have anything about a group wearing black cloaks with red clouds?" Naruto asked.

Jiraiya jerked in surprise before he shook his head and asked "How do you know about that?"

"I left a squadron of shadow clones back in the village to find any stragglers from what happened yesterday. Two of my clones stepped into a fight between Kakashi-sensei, Kurenai Yuhi, and Asuma Sarutobi on one side and Itachi Uchiha and Kisame Hoshigaki on the other. Apparently they are looking for me and others like me."

Jiraiya paled before color rapidly returned and he began letting out a rapid series of curses alternating in what the blond recognized as three different outdated Hidden Leaf 'code' languages and he felt his eyebrow rise as Jiraiya passed the fifteen minute mark without repeating anything even in different languages.

Five minutes later, Jiraiya finished and Naruto said "Now that you've got that rather impressive display of Hidden Leaf Village cryptology out of the way, care to explain?"

Jiraiya took in a deep breath to further calm himself before he said "My sources had told me that all they were doing so far was collecting funds through hiring themselves out for missions. They weren't supposed to be actively searching for their targets for another two years at least."

"Uh-huh. Well, any possibility that those two were just taking advantage of the fact that the village had just been invaded?" Naruto asked.

Jiraiya cocked his head a little as he said "It's possible." Getting serious, he said "How long do we have until they catch up with us?"

Naruto shrugged and said "No clue. They don't know where I am so they will be searching for a while, but they're already gone from the village. It could be today, it could be five months from now."

Jiraiya let one last curse out before he grew even more serious and said "Well there's nothing we can do about it for now. Until they find us, we have to put our mission first. We can clash with S-class nin when they catch up. Speaking of which, how well did your clones hold up against them? I need to know if I can trust your skills enough when we get in a fight."

Naruto shrugged and said "As well as expected. My clones didn't fight Kisame since one of them was maintaining a barrier of sorts but the other clone was able to handle a Taijutsu fight with Itachi fairly well."

"I see. Still, I think I'd feel better if you had an A rank jutsu or two under your belt when they come, just to be safe. What do you know of the Fourth Hokage's Rasengan?"

Naruto stumbled a bit before he shot an incredulous look and the bear of a man next to him and said "You want me to learn the Rasengan, a jutsu invented by the Fourth?"

Jiraiya smirked and said "What? Not up to the challenge?"

"The challenge isn't the problem! I've already got enough people hating my guts in the village. How do you think they'd react if they saw me swinging around the Fourth's spinning ball of doom if we were ever invaded again?" Naruto asked just imagining the mobs that would be after him if they found out the so called demon was using one of the two jutsu their beloved leader had created.

Jiraiya waved his hand in a lazy manner even as he said "And what right do they have telling you what you can and can't learn?" Eyes turning dead serious, Jiraiya said "Besides, considering everything, it's your right to learn this. The Fourth entrusted you with keeping the Kyuubi back, that makes you his successor in a way."

Naruto's eyes narrowed as he said "Don't bull shit with me Sage. First you wanted me to sign the Toad Contract, now you're pushing me to learn one of the signature jutsu of the Fourth Hokage who you taught. Why the hell do you want me to be like him so much? I know I look like dad but if that's your reason than you're doing this for the wrong one."

Jiraiya's eyes widened in surprise for a moment before he sighed and said "Sarutobi-sensei did warn me that you were smart and had most likely figured it out by now." Shaking his head, he looked forward down the path they were still running on and even farther as his eyes took on a faraway look. A moment later, he said "There was a prophecy made by the elder sage of the Toad clan. Your father believed that it would one day apply to you."

Naruto blinked before he looked forward as well and said "I don't believe in such stuff. Prophecies indicate a set fate, and I refuse to believe that everything is set in stone."

Jiraiya chuckled and said "A good belief for a shinobi, but I think you will make an exception when you hear just what the prophecy was about." Jiraiya closed his eyes for a moment remembering the words before he opened them again and said "The wording is extremely long and tedious, but basically, the prophecy spoke of a warrior who would bring balance to the world with the help of three warriors of fire, water, and earth."

"And where do you fit in?" Naruto asked.

Jiriya grinned and said "Right at the part which said the warrior would learn from a toad. Ring any bells?"

"And you actually expect me to believe this? Yeah right, I highly doubt you can even teach me anything worthwhile at all considering how you can't even properly check up on the son of your dead student." Naruto said picking up speed clearly saying that this conversation was over. If he had looked back, he would have seen the dead look in Jiraiya's eyes as the man became lost in memories that were better left alone.

Scene Change Five Hours Later: Fun Fun Avenue

Naruto frowned as he looked outside the bar he and Jiraiya were in as they waited for his 2iC. He didn't like that they were just sitting around doing nothing when there were two S-class nin trying to track him down. And then there was the Rasengan training. He looked down at the water balloon Jiraiya had plopped into his hand as they walked into the bar and told Naruto to burst the balloon with just his chakra. No demonstration or explanation, just six words. How the man still thought that Naruto wanted to learn the jutsu was beyond him, but there wasn't much point to argue with the pervert.

Sighing, Naruto began idly swirling his chakra around in the balloon and frowned as he thought that it was a good thing he declined any training from the perv last month if this was any indication of how he usually taught. And while he had already figured out how to finish this step, he still wasn't sure if learning such a jutsu would later sign his death warrant with the villagers. After all, they had thought his partners were minor demons he had summoned in order to help him with their destruction. He was pretty sure they would all come together in a lynching mob if they ever found out about this.

He was brought out of his musings when he suddenly got a set of memories from a shadow clone. Back going ramrod straight, he watched as a Pidgey clone followed a group of Sound nin to an underground base and began mapping the area alongside its brothers before they began the process of sabotaging the base. Naruto frowned wondering why the clone would dispel just to show him this until he got to the last memory and his frown grew twice as big as he 'heard' Orochimaru ordering Kabuto to find Tsunade to heal him from the massive chakra burns the blonde's clones had given him by letting loose a six ton bomb in the barrier during the invasion.

Still frowning, Naruto stood up from where he had been sitting and headed over to the bar where Jiraiya was calmly sipping Sake as he waited for his 2iC. When the blond slid onto the barstool beside him, the man rose an eyebrow and said "What is it? Having trouble?"

Naruto shot him a flat look and said "You're still assuming that I want you to teach me anything Perv. No, there's something you need to know. One of my clones that followed the Sound nin after the invasion yesterday managed to pick up a conversation between Orochimaru and Kabuto, a spy who had taken the Chunnin Exams. The snake wants the four eyed bastard to track down Tsunade to heal his body from the extensive damage my clones did to him."

"Which means we have even more of a time constraint than before. As soon as I am done getting all of the new Intelligence we are leaving." Jiraiya said before he let out a soft curse. He suddenly straightened though as he sensed a familiar presence. Grinning, he said "Fortunately, my contact is here. Hopefully she has something on Tsunade's whereabouts."

Naruto turned his head around and he couldn't keep his eyebrow rising just a fraction. The woman who entered the bar was not some knock out model or anything, straight brown hair that went to her mid back and common brown eyes, but her eyes had the glint that said that she could get whatever information she wanted out of you. And they were currently locked onto him with a rather unsettling glint that really put Naruto on edge despite the genial smile on the brunette. Then her eyes flicked over to Jiraiya and the smile grew even as Naruto released a small sigh of relief. His partners' poke balls vibrated showing their amusement and Naruto mock scowled down at them as he said "Oh hush you guys."

"Jiraiya, it's good to see you again." The woman said as she took the stool on the other side of the Sage.

"Good to see you again as well Iyumi." Jiraiya said with a grin before it dropped off its face for a more serious look and he lowered his voice as he said "How is your brother?"

Iyumi's smile became just a little more genuine as she said "Recovering nicely, thank you for asking." Face turning serious as well, she said "Now what can I do for you?"

"Well, besides the usual, we need to track down my old teammate Tsunade. Do you have any information on her whereabouts?" Jiraiya asked.

Iyumi cocked her head a little as she said "As a matter of fact I do. She's currently making her way to Tanzaku Gai for the little gambling festival that's going to be going on a week from now."

Naruto felt his eyebrow raise again and he leaned forward a little so that he could actually see her around Jiraiya and said "Gambling festival?"

Iyumi smiled at him and despite himself Naruto felt a small shiver go down his spine as the image of a mountain cat stalking its prey briefly made its way through his mind before he was snapped back as Iyumi said "A time when the payout is twice as much as usual." Seeing Naruto's nod of understanding, Iyumi turned back to Jiraiya and said "So who is the young one Jiraiya? You normally travel by yourself."

"He's the tracker that was assigned to help me find Tsunade." Jiraiya said although his tone of voice said he wanted to say something else.

When Naruto saw the raised eyebrow sent his way, he sighed and said "Jiraiya's got the big idea that I'm supposed to be his student or something. Personally I think the day he could actually teach me anything useful properly is the day Lord Shinigami starts working in a hospital's maternity ward."

"Hey!"

Naruto gave the man a deadpanned look and raised the water balloon in his hand as he said "I told you I didn't want to learn the Rasengan, but you ignored that. Then you just drop this in my hand and tell me to burst it with chakra without any other kind of explanation or demonstration. So don't you dare say otherwise you demented toad." Standing up from his seat, he said "I'm going to go make sure we won't have company coming soon. I'll leave a clone for you to tell me when you're done with all of this spy stuff. Ma'am." Giving a nod of farewell to Iyumi, he made said clone before he spun around and made his way out of the bar. He tossed the balloon over his shoulder and couldn't help the smirk that came on his face when Jiraiya let out a yelp as the balloon burst when it hit his head. Shaking his head at the man's antics since he knew he could have avoided that, Naruto thought 'How that fool managed to teach anyone with how he acts is beyond me.'

Reaching the street outside, Naruto turned and made his way outside of the one street town with plans of letting Charizard out to stretch his wings a little while he performed some aerial reconnaissance. As if sensing his thoughts, Charizard's Pokeball vibrated and Naruto smiled down at it and said "Just wait until we've left this weird town and you can come out buddy. No need to cause an undue panic." Blastoise's Pokeball vibrated this time and Naruto frowned at it as he said "No, I'm not being a spoil sport. I'm being reasonable." Venusaur's Pokeball vibrated and Naruto said "See, Venusaur agrees."

Easily ignoring the weird looks from those who had apparently heard Naruto talking to himself, the blond quickly left the street and entered the small forest nearby. After checking to make sure that no one was around, he unclipped Charizard's poke ball and threw it into the air. As Charizard materialized and began stretching his wings, Naruto reclipped the poke ball before he made twenty one clones.

Turning to one of them, he took out the evidence bag that had Tsunade's old forehead protector and said "I want you to memorize the scent on this and head to Tanzaku Gai ahead of us. If she is already there, I want you to shadow her so that way we can reach her as soon as possible. Don't let yourself be seen." The clone nodded and transformed into an Arcanine before he took a long sniff of the object in question. A moment later, a Pidgeot was rocketing out of the forest leaving a sonic boom when it cleared the treetops.

Naruto waited for the rumbling to stop before he turned to the other twenty clones and said "I need you guys to form a spiraling search perimeter. Akatsuki's going to track us down sooner or later. I want as much of an advance warning as we can get. Understood?" When the clones nodded their understanding, he gave a nod of his own and said "Good. Scatter!"

Twenty clouds of smoke filled the air before twenty Fearow clones shot out and began spiraling around in further increasing circles. Turning to Charizard who was watching him with a calm look, Naruto said "Ready to hit the skies again?"

"Absolutely." Charizard said with a grin which only grew as Naruto transformed into a Charizard as well and the two shot up out of the forest with the intent of spending as long as they could in the sky.

Time Skip: One Hour

Surprisingly, Naruto and Charizard got a full hour before they had to stop their aimless flying. Unfortunately, the end of their relaxation time was announced by one of the Fearow clones creating another one which dispelled showing Itachi Uchiha and Kisame Hoshigaki rapidly making their way to Fun Fun Avenue from ten miles away in the direction of the Leaf Village. Naruto felt his eyes narrow as he thought 'Didn't take them very long. Itachi must have found out what our mission was when he tortured Kakashi-sensei, and it stands to reason that a group such as theirs would have counterintelligence on the perv's spy network.'

Shaking his head from those thoughts, he turned to his flying partner and said "Akatsuki's found us."

Charizard let out a growl at the thought of the people who were trying to take away his partner before he said "What do you want to do Naruto?"

Naruto looked towards where the two S Rank criminals were and said "First, we tell the clone with Jiraiya to tell him about this if he hasn't already. Second, we make sure those two don't get any closer to the Avenue so that way we can keep casualties as low as possible. Let's go." Naruto made a clone which quickly dispelled before both shot off towards the enemy with plans on fighting a battle of attrition.

Time Skip: Ten Minutes Later: With Itachi And Kisame

Itachi and Kisame both suddenly felt their shinobi danger senses going off and they both skidded to a stop as they looked around the road that cut through a small forest that they were sure was without any human presences just a second ago. They were surprised when twenty flashes of blue light erupted around them in a circle which quickly died revealing a group of unfamiliar looking creatures and one familiar creature. Before either of them could say anything, the creatures, five Gallades, two of their female counterparts Gardevoir, eight Alakazam, four Kadabras and one Mewtwo all rose their right arm as their eyes lit up with a blue glow and the two Missing Nin suddenly found themselves grabbed in telekinetic grips and were raised a foot of the ground spread eagled.

The Mewtwo clone frowned from where he was directly facing the two and said "You guys caused a lot of trouble back in the village." He twitched his head and Itachi's head snapped back preventing anyone from looking him in the eyes as he continued "Thankfully, there's a lot more of us clones this time so we don't have to worry about keeping you here through combat. Even someone as strong as you two can't break out of ten psychic types telekinetically holding you like this."

"Oh, want to bet on that?" Kisame asked with a shark grin on his face as his limbs began shaking as he tried to move them. Or at least they began shaking until the clones holding him focused more on their grips and the limbs spread out far enough to be on the brink of dislocating something and stayed that way.

"Yeah, I would like to bet on that." one of the Gallade clones said before he reached up with his left arm and telekinetically lifted the man's long sword from his back and tossed it outside of the circle and embedded it in a tree thirty feet away from the circle. The other clones followed his example and quickly removed the rest of the weapons from the two nin.

"Oh, and just in case you two get the bright idea of trying to substitute your way out of there, you should know that doing so well tear your bodies to countless tiny pieces from the pressure of going against the psychic energy currently surrounding you." The Gardevoir clone that was on the opposite side of the circle said.

Another Gallade clone cocked his head and said "So since we're just going to wait for Boss and the Sage to get here, why don't you tell us just what you want the Kyuubi for?"

"Like hell we'll tell you anything!" Kisame shouted as his entire body erupted into a bonfire of chakra and he roared as he began to slowly bring his arms forward with the obvious intent of performing some kind of jutsu. The ten clones holding him instantly sharpened their focus even more and they grunted as they tried to keep the man's arms still.

The Mewtwo clone saw sweat beginning to form on most of the foreheads of the clones on the right side of the circle and he cursed as he thought 'Boss better get here soon. This guy is way too strong to be human.'

And then things went to hell in a hand basket as the blue skinned nin's sword that everybody had forgot about once it was out of said nin's reach decided at that moment to show that the thing was alive as it somehow absolutely demolished the tree it was in and launched itself at the Kadabra clone that was the closest at it. The thing shredded the clone to pieces before it dispelled shocking the two Kadabra clones on either side. That shock cost them their focus and it was just enough for Kisame to force his arms into the hand sign most often used for water style jutsu and he spat a Rock Splitter Jutsu at the final Kadabra clone right next to the Mewtwo clone.

The clone was quickly dispelled along with the other two Kadabras when the sword extended weird spikes out of its body that impaled them in the sides leaving only the three Gallades, two Alakazam and one Gardevoir on the right side.

The Mewtwo clone cursed as he temporarily switched most of his focus towards Kisame and telekinetically ripped the outer Radius out of his right arm drawing a scream of pain out of the nin. Unfortunately, the loss of most of his focus on Itachi was enough for the Uchiha, who until that point had been as docile as a baby kitten, to tilt his head to the right and then proceeded to turn it to face Mewtwo as his Sharingan went Mangekyo and he sent black fire at the clones on his side of their circle.

All of the clones let out curses of their own as they erected Barriers which while blocking the fire that came at them, also took away most of THEIR focus and Itachi was able to push his arms through their telekinesis enough to run through hand signs as he said "Earth Style: Earth Spike Jutsu."

Itachi suddenly proved why he was hailed as a Ninjutsu prodigy as without even being in contact with the ground, he successfully pulled off an Earth style jutsu. Spikes of rock shot out of the ground and took out the Gardevoir clone along with all six of the Alakazam clones. The two Gallade clones were able to blast themselves into the air by psychically blasting the ground underneath them.

Mewtwo took a more proactive approach though. He telekinetically blasted towards Itachi before turning into a Lucario and slammed a fist into Itachi's sternum, Itachi spat out blood at the impact, and with no psychic type to keep him suspended, went flying a good ten feet before he slammed into the road and skipped. Lucario didn't give him a chance to recover though as he shot over to the Uchiha and slammed an axe kick down on his head sending him back into the ground and causing a crater. But even as he hit the ground, Itachi burst into crows showing it was a Genjutsu.

Said Genjutsu didn't do its job very well though since as soon as his foot hit the ground, Lucario was already ducking down and spinning away from the horizontal slash that came from behind that would have taken his head off. 'Looking' at Itachi with his aura sense, Lucario said "You seem to be loosing your touch if a Gennin can instantly tell when you've placed a Genjutsu on him."

Itachi's eyes narrowed just a fraction as he said in his stoic voice "Tell me clone, is your creator Naruto Uzumaki?"

Lucario's lips turned upward as he said "I wonder what gives you that idea when I know my brother back in the leaf told you that Naruto is a friend of our creator."

"Deception is a key aspect of Shinobi. It is not much of a stretch that that clone said as such in order to draw attention away from Uzumaki." Itachi said as he drew his Ninjato.

Lucario scoffed at the blade that was beginning to crackle with Lightning natured chakra and said "Are we really going to do this again? My brother countered that blade when he fought you, what makes you think I can't do the same, even if it's a different element from before?"

Silence and Itachi shifting into a stance that was equally good at shifting to offense or defense was his answer. Lucario frowned at the silence before he said "Well, if you want to try your luck against me then who am I to disappoint?"

Itachi allowed an eyebrow to rise as the spikes on Lucario's hands sparked once before crackling streams of electricity began to surround them. Lucario took a stance that like Itachi's could either defend and attack equally well as he said "Ready for round two?"

With The Fight Against Kisame

The two Gallade clones didn't need the telepathic order from their unofficial leader to go to the aid of their other brethren, just seeing the man trying to cut them to ribbons with his sword in hand was more than enough motivation. Indeed, the man had already taken out the Gardevoir clone and had forced the two Alakazam clones to turn into Sceptiles that had to use the blades on their forearms that were currently glowing just to survive.

One of said Sceptiles had just blocked a wild swing from the weird shark sword that had sent him skidding back. He looked up and smirked as he said "I must admit that I'm surprised you can swing that thing around so easily, and with your off hand no less. But I think your forgetting that we still out number you seven to one."

Kisame didn't have time to correct the blond that it was five to one since both clones transformed into Machamps and sent a one second, one thousand punch strong barrage into the man's back. Or at least they would have if the man hadn't been a water clone that instantly burst apart. Surprisingly enough, the two didn't look too surprised about that, as one turned to the right and began making its way to where the real Kisame was now doing battle with all three Gallade clones at once while the other looked at the two Sceptile clones and said "Do you really want to taunt the guy who is said to be as strong as a Tailed Beast?"

The Sceptile clone that had spoke shrugged his shoulders as he said "What do I care? I'm a clone. The worst that guy can do is dispel me."

"And you want the Boss to fight a ticked off member of the Seven Swordsmen when he gets here why?" the Machamp clone asked with a raised eyebrow.

The other Sceptile clone snorted and said "Yes dear brother, do tell us why you would want the guy who gave you temporary life to die a horrible, miserable, _agonizing_ death?"

His fellow Forrest type gave him a deadpanned look and said "Boss is the Prankster King of Hell. Once he'd found out, he would most likely just continue to annoy him some more and laugh while he was doing it."

"Hm, he has a point." Said clone said.

The Machamp clone sighed before he said "Well, whatever. We still have to beat that guy's ass." He then turned into a Blaziken and took a high altitude jump into the sky and flipped before he fell slamming an ax kick down on Kisame who had to pull a substitution since he was surrounded by the other four clones. Not that it helped, since as soon as he appeared, he had three Gallade clones right there bearing down on him as they each started laying into the man with their bladed arms. The Blaziken clone turned back into a Machamp before he went after them.

This was the sight that Jiraiya and his shadow clone escort came to. Jiraiya stared at the Lucario clone that was trading blows with Itachi seemingly rather easily even with closed eyes and then his gaze turned to the other clones that were actually seeming to hold their own as they ganged up on Kisame.

"Rather impressive isn't it?" A voice said from up on a tree branch on their right and Jiraiya whipped his head up to see the original Naruto leaning against the tree next to Charizard simply watching the two fights going on.

"Hi boss!" The clone chirped and Naruto gave a short wave in greeting as Jiraiya's jaw lowered as he thought 'How the hell did I not sense those two? One of them has a flame on its tail for crying out loud!' Poor Jiraiya, if only he knew of the hellish stealth training Naruto had put his partners through after the first week he had found them and each time they evolved.

If Naruto knew how much he was messing with the Toad Sage's mind due to his stealth skills he didn't show it. Instead, he pointed to the two fights going on and said "How do you think we should deal with those two? My Lucario clone may be able to keep up with Itachi when it comes to Taijutsu and to an extent Kenjutsu, but if that guy starts spewing fireballs and other jutsu he's going to start having trouble. And It's entirely possible that Kisame's just playing with my other clones even if he's had one of the Radius in his right arm ripped out not ten minutes ago."

Jiraiya blinked before he focused on said arm and saw that yes, there was a ragged hole in the man's arm that looked like something was violently ripped out of it.

His temporary teammate brought his focus back to him as he said "You think you could keep up with Itachi while me and my partners take on Kisame? You can use that clone for help along with the one currently fighting Itachi."

Said clone turned into a Lucario as Jiraiya blinked and said "Wait a minute, you think you can actually take on Kisame Hoshigaki? The most blood thirsty of the Seven Swordsmen? Are you mad?! I thought you liked your partners, and what about your life?" Taking those two on using shadow clones was one thing, going after either of them with the real you was suicide!

Naruto smirked and pointed to Charizard as he said "Charizard here helped me fight Gaara when he went one tailed on us and the others are no slouches either. Trust me, they can handle what I plan on them doing. And as for me, well…" Here, Naruto's face turned into a horrifying visage of a demon in human skin grinning evilly at his victims as he said "There's a reason why I'm known as the Prankster King of Hell in the village."

Jiraiya felt a shiver run down his spine at the sight and he let a sigh of relief out as Naruto hopped out of the tree and released his other two partners, therefore turning his attention away from the toad summoner. Unfortunately for him, as the blond explained to his partners what he wanted them to do, three identical looks appeared on their faces and he thought 'I never want to be on the opposite side of any fight where this brat has that look on his face.'

Not caring about what the man's thoughts were, Naruto said "Alright guys, you remember when I told you guys that there would come a time when your stealth training was going to come in handy? Well this is it. Our target is an S-ranked water style Ninjutsu specialist, with at least as much chakra as me so we're going to be using hit and hide tactics on him. Charizard, I want you to use Sunny Day and keep it running for as long as this fight goes on. Venusaur, you are going to be using Solar Beam at long range in a shoot then move fashion. Make sure you don't become predictable with where you'll shoot next. Blastoise, I want you using Ice Beam, be sure to freeze any water around this guy as well."

The Pokemon nodded acceptance of their orders before Blastoise cocked his head and said "And what are you going to be doing to piss the guy off?"

Naruto smirked and said "I'm going Ninjask on his ass. I've finally been able to get the speed problem down and can now properly fly as one." His three partners snickered before he sent them into the woods. He created and dispelled a clone which told his clones the plan and they each gave a small nod that was easily missed while they continued to fight Kisame. The Lucario clone gave a gesture of confirmation as well before he ducked under Itachi's horizontal sword swing and came back up swinging his hand in an uppercut that would have gutted the Uchiha like a fish if he didn't jump back in time.

Naruto gave Jiraiya a quick salute as he said "Good luck with Itachi Sage." He then transformed and Jiraiya heard the barest traces of insect wings as the blond began moving fast enough to turn invisible to most people's eyes.

The first sign that Kisame had that he was about to have a bad day was when each clone that he had been fighting took one step back so that there were now gaps in what had once been a hole less formation. The second sign was when the sun suddenly got brighter for no apparent reason. And the third and final sign was when he heard a loud buzzing sound like an insect's wings as it flew right by his ear. Unfortunately for Kisame, he had been having too much fun to pay that last sign any attention and he thought the second had absolutely nothing to do with his fight.

That changed though when the buzzing sound shot right in front of his face and _something_ slashed at his face leaving him with a cut that started from the top of his right cheek through the bridge of his nose and ended on the other cheek. (Think Iruka's scar.) Immediately after, two cuts suddenly appeared across his back and then down his left arm before another cut appeared going all the way down his left leg. Kisame blinked as the wounds kept appearing all over him before he became annoyed enough to blast his chakra outwards pushing all of the clones he was fighting back about five feet as he looked for the annoying insect that what he assumed was a late coming clone had turned into. All that did though was make him a relatively easy target of a yellow beam and blue bolt of lightning that shot out of the forest in two different directions. Kisame frowned at the two attacks coming at him but easily jumped over them causing them to pass underneath him. When he landed, he rose an eyebrow at the destroyed tree that was beginning to fall and the completely frozen tree that was ninety degrees from it.

Turning his head towards the woods, he shouted "Impressive jutsu brats, but you have to do better than that!"

"Is that a challenge?" a voice shouted from above and Kisame looked up in time to get a face full of water as a Blastoise that was less than two feet over him blasted him with a Hydro Pump before turning back into a Ninjask and shooting down to the ground behind Kisame and turned into a Jolteon for just long enough to send a Thunderbolt the Missing Nin's way before once again turning into a Ninjask and temporarily bolted.

Unfortunately for Kisame, the blue nin got hit by both attacks due to how they were point blank range attacks and he gritted his teeth as the water augmented electricity did its best to fry his internal organs. But in an impressive feat of endurance, he was able to block the rush of the two Machamp clones and was even able to dispel the one on his left by having Samehada extend a spike through his foot.

He would have taunted the other clones about it if he didn't see the absolutely murderous look on the other Machamp clone's face and the sheer amount of killing intent that would have left anyone under Jounin rank on the floor probably going into a coma, the clone who just happened to be the one directly on the side of his ruined arm. One thought passed through his mind before the clone was on him, 'This is going to hurt.' In an instant, the clone was on him, using his anger to help launch a thousand punches on his right arm in the second between getting inside his guard and Kisame's swinging sword taking that clone out as well. The damage had been done though and now the Shark nin's arm was pretty much a lost cause with all of the bones in the arm shattered to dust and the muscles turned to pulp.

Kisame let out a scream of pure pain as he was thrown away from the one second barrage. Seeing the chance to finally do some lasting damage after fifteen minutes of hard fighting, one of the Gallade clones suddenly transformed into a Charizard and shouted "Now's our chance, give it everything you've got! Blast Burn!" A raging inferno of white fire shot out of the clone's mouth and was quickly joined by a second Blast Burn and a roaring Hydro Cannon that were sent by the other two Gallade clones after they transformed into a Charizard and Blastoise respectively. The Two Sceptile clones joined in with super charged Solar Beams a second later which were joined by another that shot out of the woods as well as super charged Hydro Cannon. The original Naruto joined in as well, transforming into a Swampert and sent his own Hydro Cannon at the Shark nin.

Kisame was in too much pain to properly defend himself from the attacks and he was hit with the full force of all eight high tier attacks and he screamed for a second time which was rapidly drowned out by the resulting explosion of several powerful attacks of three primary element types joining together and detonating which threw out a shockwave and sent dirt and debris flying.

With Jiraiya

Jiraiya was not a happy man right now. Yeah, he was able to hold his own in his fight with the help of the two Lucario clones which were surprisingly good at keeping up with Itachi in hand to hand as well as sword fighting, and somewhat adequate at staying alive when Itachi used a jutsu or two, but they were just shadow clones, Jiraiya didn't have to worry too much about the things dying on him. No, the problem was the fact that his stubborn godson was going after the man that was deemed strong enough to actually be this guy's partner.

Or at least it was until an explosion rocked the ground and all four combatants' heads snapped over to where the other fight had been going on. As soon as the dust settled revealing Kisame's current state, (Right arm looked like it was just skin stuffed with pulverized meat while every inch of the man's skin was crispy black) the usually stoic Uchiha let out a soft curse before he was suddenly at Kisame's side and then the two disappeared in some strange vortex along with the shark nin's sword.

"I don't believe it. The kid actually beat him." Jiraiya said as the blond began to dispel the clones around him one by one absorbing each clone's memories of the fight. His partners soon came out of the forest and began talking with him about the fight as the sun dimmed back to its usual brightness.

The clone that had been fighting Itachi since before Jiraiya showed up shook his head and said "No, we only got lucky. If I hadn't taken out that man's right Radius in his arm before I started fighting Itachi, one of the Machamp clones wouldn't have been able to get his one second barrage of punches in and they'd still be fighting him, if not dead right now. Next time we face that guy, it's going to be a lot harder." The clone then dispelled followed by his brother leaving Jiraiya standing alone as he considered the ramifications of the fights.

Chapter End

Author's Notes: I had so much trouble with this chapter, it's not even funny. I think I must have gotten rid of at least ten pages worth of writing trying to come up with a way to make this somewhat believable. On a different note, we get to see Orochimaru get royally pissed off when a shadow clone interrupts a meeting between him and Tsunade.


	21. Search And Retrieve Part Three

21. Search and Retrieve Part Three

Story Start: Hidden Sound Base: Shadow Clone Designation Beta 220 Reporting

Beta 220, the chosen leader of the forty strong shadow clone task force that had joined him in locating the Hidden Sound base that the retreating Sound army fled to looked at his gathered brothers as they stood in the top of the trees surrounding the underground entrance to the base. They were currently safe from any prying eyes due to the fact that no patrol would think to look so close to the base since there were guards posted at the bottom of the stairs leading into the base. Gaining a grim smile at the fact that no one had detected them yet, he said "Alright, it's taken us nearly twenty four hours to get everything ready, but we're now ready to begin the fun part of our mission."

All of the clones chuckled while rather evil grins were sprouted by some of the more eager ones. Sporting a vicious grin of his own, B220 said "We've let these guys think they got away clean long enough." Growing serious, he continued "However, as much as I would like to just blow the place to kingdom come and be done with it, we have prisoners to evacuate before we activate those explosive seals that we have placed. Alpha squad, that's your job. Once the mission starts, you'll have a minute and a half tops to teleport to the cells, take out the guards, and get everyone out. Any longer than that and we risk one of the roving patrols sounding an alarm on you. Thankfully, no experiments are ongoing right now so they're all in one place. As soon as you are out, we blow the seals. Once the dust settles, Beta and Charlie squads will take care of any survivors while Delta and Echo squads will maintain a perimeter and make sure no one leaves alive. Foxtrot, you boys get the fun job. Orochimaru is currently somewhere down there, and it's your job to find him, and do your absolute best to end his miserable existence on this planet. Beta and Charlie will join you once we're finished with our jobs if you're having trouble."

All eight of the Foxtrot clones grinned as their squad leader, F39 said "Are we authorized to go Legendary and use their unique attacks if needed sir?"

"Yes, but only if necessary. Remember, our brothers who helped Boss get the Old Man out of Orochimaru's barrier were able to turn the snake into walking charcoal with the explosion they created. He shouldn't be able to put up enough of a fight to warrant that kind of force. And for Tree's sake, don't turn into an Entei if you do have to go legendary. The last thing we need is to have a volcano suddenly appear around us all while we're fighting." B220 trailed off as each of the clones imagined a volcano erupting underneath the base and killing everybody making their jobs a lot easier before he shook his head and said "As much fun as THAT would be to watch, we really don't want to create such a massive change in geography like that in a primarily agricultural country. Volcanic soil may be good for farming, but the molten lava it produces isn't as friendly for it. Now, does anyone else have any questions?"

Seeing that there were none, B220 transformed into a Luxray and used his new chakra augmented X-Ray vision to look through the branch he was on, through the ground and into the base proper. Seeing that the roving patrol of two Sound Nin closest to the cells were having a conversation with the guards, B220 decided now was a good time to begin and informed Alpha squad the enemy's positions and authorized them to begin the mission.

Immediately after, B220 saw all eight members of Alpha Squad Teleport in as Gallades behind each guard and decapitated each one before they even knew someone was behind them. The roving patrol barely had time to widen their eyes in surprise before Alpha's squad leader, A43, telekinetically threw the two headlong into a wall at terminal velocity leaving a rather nasty mess on said wall. Guards and patrollers now removed, Alpha squad began telekinetically ripping cell doors out of walls and pulling the shell shocked prisoners towards them before teleporting out when everyone was around them.

Back with the rest of the squads, Charlie Squad's leader, C15 blinked his own Luxray eyes and said "Well now, that was rather efficient of them."

B220 chuckled even as he transformed into a Gengar and brought up his hands and said "Yeah well, let's see if we can match that efficiency, Katsu!"

Immediately after, the ground below them bulged for a moment as fire poured out of the stairs before the ground suddenly collapsed into a giant sink hole toppling all of the trees in the area. Charlie and Beta squads immediately followed their leader's actions and turned into Ghost types as they plummeted to the ground and phased through before stopping inside a collapsed tunnel and split up to find any survivors. Foxtrot fell even further, stopping at the bottom level of the base where the secure bunker that Orochimaru resided was. Meanwhile, back topside, Delta and Echo took to the skies as Flygon scanning the area with their Infrared Vision as they began forming a perimeter around the sink hole beneath them.

Scene Change: With Alpha Squad, One Mile North of Sound Base, Thirty Seconds After Mission Start

A43 felt the ground underneath him tremble before the thunderous sound of centuries old trees falling and hitting the ground rang out through the clearing he and the other members of Alpha squad had teleported to with the rescued prisoners. Turning back to where the base was most likely a lot less functional, he said "The chief certainly doesn't waste any time." Dropping his transformation, he turned to the prisoners who were now coming out of their shocked states and said "Sorry about the sudden Grab and Teleport back there people, but we were on a time limit. We should be safe here, but just in case, we're going to raise a Barrier while we tend to any injuries you have before linking back up with the rest of our task force after they finish their assault on the base and work on getting you all back to your homes. Any questions?"

"W-What are you guys?" One of the prisoners asked staring at A43 and his brothers who had also dropped their transformations after raising a Barrier around them.

A43 grinned and said "Just a squad of Shadow Clones sir. Now, who among you is injured?"

Scene Change: With Charlie Squad Leader

C15 ducked to avoid a kunai that was thrown at his head as he rushed his current enemy. Not that he needed to of course, since as a Haunter, something as simple as a kunai couldn't even touch him. No, the duck just coincided with the fact that he went low to grab his opponent's foot and pulled it out from under him which he then used to position said opponent behind him in order to catch the five other kunai sent at him. Opponent now dead from friendly fire, C15 dropped the corpse and turned around to stare at the enemy nin who had thrown the barrage and sent a Thunderbolt through him before turning around again, stabbing his right hand through a sound nin who made the rather unfortunate mistake of trying to charge him with a chakra filled sword. His hand came out the other side with the nin's heart in it and he watched the nin's eyes widen before he too dropped to the floor. Looking around the mostly ruined tunnel revealed no new targets and so he phased through the mound of dirt blocking the rest of the corridor off in search of more tangos, one of his brothers following while the rest hunted elsewhere.

Scene Change: With Foxtrot Squad

F39's sensitive Ninetails ears twitched as he heard another scream coming from some unfortunate soul upstairs who had survived the initial explosion and consequential collapse of most of the base. More important to him and the rest of his squad was the group of ten Sound nin who had gathered in front of the rather large reinforced steel door that gave entrance to the bunker their target was in. These ten were the only other occupants of this level, and from a certain point of view could be considered lucky since almost no damage had been done to this level. On the flipside, there were now ten Shadow Clones just around the corner transformed into various water, fire, and electric types ready to storm the bunker.

F39 turned towards three of his brothers who had decided to turn into the three original eeveelutions and made a gesture with three of his tails bringing them together to form one point before jerking outwards. The three eons each gave a nod before they sprinted around the corner and before the enemy could react to their sudden presence launched a Thunderbolt, Flamethrower and Hydro Pump down the hallway which connected five feet in front of the enemy and promptly exploded from the three elements combining. Once the smoke cleared, it revealed that none of the ten Sound nin had survived the explosion and the Jolteon clone gave the all clear signal with his tail.

The rest of Foxtrot came around the corner and F39 let out a grim smile at how well the improvised Tri-Attack worked. Seeing the reinforced steel door, he turned to another clone who was acting as their heavy duty support and so was transformed into a Blastoise. Jerking his head towards the offending door, he said "Think you can get through that?"

The two water nozzles on the clones back dipped into the shell and back in a cocking motion as the clone grinned and said "Sure do. The Boss has been wanting to try this for ages." The rest of Foxtrot Squad chuckled as they moved out of the Blastoise clone's way. Said clone leaned forward slightly as his nozzles pointed inwards before water shot out and he recoiled slightly as the water slammed into the top of the bunker door.

Scene Change: Inside Bunker, One Minute Earlier

Orochimaru had been having a bad twenty four hours. First his master plan to destroy the Hidden Leaf Village and personally kill his old teacher had been completely destroyed by a twelve year old brat and his Shadow Clones cutting down over three fourths of his attacking army and leaving his entire body covered in massive chakra burns. Then, when he finally got back to base, his chief medic Kabuto had to spend ten hours doing his best to save his life, and even now, after five additional hours of him trying to heal said burns his body was STILL more burned than healed. Kabuto had worn himself out trying to unsuccessfully heal burned skin without the benefit of any healthy skin around the burns to help him accelerate the healing process. After fifteen hours of surgery with little progress, Kabuto faced the risk of massive chakra exhaustion and so had to postpone the rest of the needed surgery to fully heal him and had instead given him a medicine to drink every hour for a day that was supposed to kick start his body's natural (Or not so natural in his case) healing abilities. Too bad it tasted worse than the vomit it tried to induce and felt like something slimy was going down his throat whenever he drank it.

It was because of this that he had sent his Sound Four to gather Karin from his South base in order to heal him faster. He had to send all four since if he only sent one or two, the ones who stayed behind would be impossible to deal with.

Adding to his bad day was the fact that Kabuto couldn't start searching for Tsunade until he had recovered and he didn't trust anyone else not to jump the gun if she was found before he was able to travel again and so had to wait for him to recover before his former teammate could be found.

And then he heard the sound of a giant explosion practically right over his head and the whole earth shook as the level above him collapsed. He was just struggling to get out of his bed with Kabuto moving across the room to help when a blast of water pierced the reinforced steel door of his bunker leaving a five inch wide hole an inch from the top before separating into two streams that began cutting a large tear shape out of the door and coincidently digging the same shape in the wall on each side of his bed before rejoining at the center two inches off the floor where the water stopped. Kabuto was just barely able to get out of the way of the stream that was above him. Orochimaru's bed wasn't so lucky and slammed into the ground without its support legs but that wasn't what caught his and Kabuto's attention. With nothing supporting the tear shaped slab of steel, the newly cut metal crashed down on the last two inches of the door and then fell forward revealing a familiar large turtle armed with two large dripping water nozzles on its back and several other animals standing behind it as it smirked and said "Knock, Knock."

Scene Change: Tanzaku Gai Twenty Minutes After Fight With Akatsuki

While the assault on the Hidden Sound base continued, another Shadow Clone transformed as a Growlithe stood on the top of the castle overlooking the primary gambling settlement in the Land of Fire. A flash of blue drew his attention to behind him and he said "She's currently on the seventh floor Boss. She's being accompanied by a younger woman named Shizune who seems to be a student of hers and a pig that seems to be a pet judging by the fact its decked out in a set of pearls and a coat."

The original Naruto blinked at that even as he dropped his Mewtwo transformation and said "Well that's an odd choice for a traveling companion. Think they've trained it to be a nin-animal?"

The clone shrugged as he transformed into a Gallade and said "It's possible." The clone then twisted its neck drawing a series of cracking sounds as he turned it first to the right and then to the left drawing a flinch from Jiriaya and a raised eyebrow from the original at the sound before he said "Well, I'm off to fetch the Old Man's clone, see ya." Then the clone flashed out leaving the original and the toad sage alone on the roof.

"Cheeky bugger." Jiriaya muttered as he walked over to the edge of the roof and leaned against it as the two waited for the clone to return.

Naruto wisely said nothing as he looked back towards Fun Fun Avenue where the fight with the two members of Akatsuki had taken place. Frowning, he thought 'With a group of S rank criminals coming after me and others like me, I'm going to have to accelerate my training. Simply learning one Attack Chain per month and relying on a Fighting type's inborn combat instincts are no longer going to cut it. I need to go from being an unknown threat on the battlefield to the one who everyone needs a new set of underwear whenever I pay any amount of attention to them. And that's not all.' Naruto's frown grew as he looked down at the three Pokeballs attached to his belt and thought 'I need to overhaul the guys' training as well. I can't always keep them on the sidelines in fear that they will get hurt and I won't be able to heal them. Battling strong opponents is literally in their nature, I need to be able to trust that they can handle themselves. But the only way I can be absolutely sure I won't doubt their ability is if I know for a fact that they can take whatever comes at them. The sooner I can get them to their max level, the sooner I can stop worrying about them and let them do what they do best.'

Naruto was drawn out of his thoughts as his shadow clone returned with a clone of the Hokage beside him who had a rather serious look on his face as he said "Shall we gentlemen?"

Scene Change: Hidden Sound Base

"Knock, Knock."

Those words were barely out of the Blastoise clone's mouth before the three Eevee evolution clones were jumping through the hole sending their improvised Tri Attack at Kabuto with F39 right on their tail sending a Fire Blast at Orochimaru's burned body. Beside him were a Minum and Plusle clones who sent a Thunderbolt at the two targets leaving the last member of Foxtrot squad helping Bastoise provide long range support as a Raichu.

Both Sound nin used the substitution jutsu to avoid the opening barrage and then began launching their own attacks, Kabuto rushing the Vaporeon clone with glowing green hands and Orochimaru blowing out a massive gale of wind at F39 and the two Electric type clones by his side. Vaporeon countered by sending a Water Gun at the floor underneath him and merged with the water an instant before Kabuto's hands reached him before he came out behind Kabuto and blasted the surprised medic into the wall with a much more powerful Hydro Pump. F39 meanwhile had grabbed both smaller clones with a tail and had poured chakra into the other seven of his tails before he stabbed said tails into the ground and cemented his feet to the ground with chakra just as the gale reached them and tried to throw them away. Tried being the key word as the Ninetails clone barely shifted an inch drawing a raised eyebrow of surprise from the Snake user. Behind him, the Blastoise clone hadn't even been affected that much by the wind and wasted no time sending a Hydro Pump over the three clones' heads and Orochimaru was forced to jump to the side to avoid the two streams of water.

F39 pulled his tails out of the ground and released his two brothers from the other two before he curled all nine of them creating a cracking sound as he said "Well now, this should be interesting." Then he telekinetically grabbed Orochimaru and threw him into the back wall with a Confusion attack leaving a one foot crater in the steel and stone wall, and a rather messy Orochimaru who had all of the major bones in his body shattered due to the faster than terminal velocity impact. "Or not." F39 muttered before his and the two clones by his side's eyes widened as a pair of hands appeared out of his opponent's mouth and said man pulled himself out.

"Ok, first of all, ew." Plusle said

"Agreed." Minum said before continuing with a shouted "And second of all, Thunderbolt!" Plusle joined the shouted attack and the two launched the twin sure strike attacks at their opponent only for a log to appear in his place.

F39 narrowed his eyes as he thought 'Note to boss, Thunderbolt isn't a sure fire hit attack when facing ninja due to Substitution Jutsu.' Then he casually diverted Orochimaru's sword by hitting the flat of the blade with a chakra augmented tail as the man tried to skewer him from behind before he turned his head and let loose with a Flamethrower that Orochimaru was hasty to get out of the way of with the Shunshin jutsu. He didn't get far though since F39 tracked his progress around the room with his inherent Psychic abilities and slammed the snake man into the wall again with Confusion before he got halfway around the clone's positional clock.

While F39 and his two Cheering Pokemon brethren were dealing with Orochimaru, The eeveeloution trio were currently making Kabuto's life hell. They might not have had their squad leader's Psychic type abilities but they could each find their opponent through various means, those being by tracking body heat, the human body's bioelectric field and the water in a person's body. Suffice to say, Kabuto was having a bit of a problem trying to sneak up on the three with his usual tricks to stay undetected.

Case in point, Kabuto had barely got his head out of the ground while he used the Underground Fish Projection jutsu ready to pounce on the Fire type only to have to duck back down to avoid a high powered jet of water thrown at him by the Water type. Sadly, this just reinforced the point that Kabuto was a slippery one and the room was taking much more damage than he was. Outside the door, Blastoise and Raichu looked on wondering how much more damage the room could take even as they added their own potshot attacks in the mix when they thought they had a shot.

This was all made a moot point though when Jolteon finally had enough and sent out a wide ranged Thunder Wave that caught Kabuto flat footed when he tried to sneak up behind him and ended up leaving the spectacled spy twitching on the floor.

Back with the other group, Orochimaru growled as he once again stumbled out of a large dent made from a Confusion attack. He was starting to get really pissed with his opponents right now. He tried getting close with his sword only for the Kyubi lookalike to deflect it with its tails. Taijutsu was also out for the simple fact that even with all four legs on the ground said clone still had more limbs it could use than him. Striking Shadow Snakes was countered with electric attacks paralyzing said snakes or they were burned to a crisp by the Fire Type. Killing Intent didn't even phase them and Genjustu just slipped over the leader like water down a duck's back and said clone would always snap the other two out who never left his side because of this making it impossible to get one of the two little brats alone to eliminate. And he couldn't use his more wide scale jutsu either due to the fact they were underground in an enclosed space. And to top it all off, all of this fighting was leaving his entire body in pure agony due to the fact he still had massive burn damage on most of his body which did not appreciate all of this movement.

The sight of Kabuto doing no better was not helping matters either. Orochimaru needed to create more room but he was currently two stories underground. Deciding that the base was now no more use to him anyway, Orochimaru grinned at the clones he was facing as he said "I must congratulate you clones. You've managed to push me far enough to unleash my trump card."

F39 rose an eyebrow before the other one joined it as Orochimaru's form turned pale white before it exploded outwards shifting into a massive snake body composed of hundreds of smaller white snake bodies and the man's now giant grinning face.

"That's new." Minum said and Plusle nodded with a frown on his face as he said "What now sir?"

"I don't like the fact that he has so many heads on him, and something tells me we can't draw this out. So let's kick things up a notch. Ability Activate: Flash Fire!" F39 shouted as his fur flashed red before he stepped forward and shouted "Flareon, hit me!" Said clone grinned as he turned around from his fight as Jolteon sent a Thunderbolt towards Kabuto's temporarily downed form earning screams of pain from said medic and said "With pleasure boss! Flamethrower!"

Orochimaru watched in shock as one clone seemingly turned on the other and launched a Fire type attack at the seeming leader of this group of clones. His shock turned into confusion when the attack seemed to sink into the clone's body and said clone's body flashed red a second time before his eyes widened again as the clone let loose with a white hot Fire Spin that covered half the room in a raging fire vortex. That half of the room began to rapidly melt from the heat and the other side wasn't that far behind.

The other fight was cut short as two of the three Eevee evolutions bolted out of the hole in the door with the Minum and Plusle doing the same. Kabuto's eyes widened from his currently paralyzed state on the floor as the fire storm continued to grow strength and a strangled "Lord Orochimaru." passed his lips. Even the Blastoise and Raichu clones had moved further back due to the heat. The only ones still standing in the room with the two Sound nin were F39 and the Flareon clone who was now standing next to his squad leader. The two were calmly watching as the vicious vortex the bigger clone had created continued to expand.

"What are those two doing?! The plan never called for a firestorm!" Raichu shouted.

"The plan didn't call for Orochimaru turning into a giant ass snake either!" Minum shouted back.

"Yeah well, that firestorm is going to bring the ceiling down on those two if they're not careful!" Blastoise shouted.

"I think that's the point!" Jolteon shouted as F39 and Flareon let loose with continuous flamethrowers adding more heat and thus more power to the raging vortex as the flames went from bright white to sun right in your face hot. All of the non-fire type clones backed further down the hall as the ceiling of the room evaporated allowing the vortex to rise out of the room and into the floor above them, and then the floor above that, until the firestorm broke out of the ground and began rising into the open air.

Scene Change: With Alpha Squad

A43 spun around from one of the rescued prisoners when the forest around him got a lot brighter than before. The sight that met his eyes when he looked up had his currently Sceptile jaw dropping. There, visible over the trees a mile away, was the sight of a firestorm that was at least two miles above the tree line.

"What in the world?" A43 breathed out before he shifted into a Flygon and used the Infared sight to see what was going on. He gasped at how hot the visible fire storm was and said "What in the name of Tree are they doing over there?"

Scene Change: With Squads Beta Through Echo

When they had gotten the urgent telepathic message from the leader of Foxtrot squad, telling them to get the hell out of dodge, none of the other clones in the area had expected a fire storm to rip through the base and erupt out of the ground and do its best to touch the lowest clouds in the area.

B220 watched the vortex continue to spin from his location a quarter of a mile away from the large tornado with the rest of the four squads and thought 'What could have made F39 think it'd be a good idea to create that?' They had already erected a barrier around the storm in order not to burn down the entire forest but they could still feel the heat it was giving off.

He was drawn out of his thoughts looking at the fire storm when Foxtrot squad teleported in missing two of their numbers. Frowning at them, he said "What happened down there?!"

The clones dropped their Psychic transformations as the one in front said "Orochimaru turned into some weird ass giant snake. Our squad leader didn't want to take any chances and proceeded to turn the place into a crematorium. He and one of the others are still down there using the Flash Fire ability to handle the heat.

B220's frown grew and he was about to respond to that statement when a member of Delta Squad said "Chief, look!"

B220's head snapped back over to the fire storm in time to see a purple shell of Psychic energy surround it and then rapidly compress the flames snuffing them out. The sight that remained had all of the clones' jaws dropping. There in front of them, was a massive eight headed snake that was sneering down at something below it, presumably the two remaining members of Foxtrot squadron. Smoke was billowing off its scales, which were burnt black, but other than that, the fire didn't seem to have affected it at all.

"Tree, mother of Log, that thing's bigger than the One Tail was." A member of Echo Squadron muttered.

B220's eyes narrowed as he said "Foxtrot Squad, help Alpha squad relocate the rescued prisoners to somewhere safer. I want everyone else here to go Legendary, things have just escalated."

Scene Change: Tanzaku Gai

Naruto was currently leaning against a wall on the seventh floor of the town's castle watching Tsunade Senju having a rather heated discussion with a shadow clone of her teacher and teammate. Beside him was Tsunade's apprentice who was introduced as Shizune who had a much more nervous look on her face as she watched as well. They had been arguing for a good thirty minutes and it didn't look like they would be stopping anytime soon.

That changed when the younger blond saw Tsunade turn her head to look at Naruto with an odd look in her eyes before she turned back to the Old Man's shadow clone and said something. Said clone blinked before he turned his head towards Naruto with a considering frown on his face. Naruto rose an eyebrow at him and the clone smirked. Turning back to Tsunade he said something before he left the group of three and came over. Jiraiya watched him head towards Naruto with a slack jaw before he began muttering something.

As the Hokage's shadow clone approached him, Naruto began having a funny feeling. When he was a couple of feet in front of him, he said "It doesn't look like first negotiations are going well sir."

The clone sighed and said "No Naruto, they're not." The clone's smirk was back as it continued "But Tsunade may have just given us an in if you're willing to help."

"Of course sir, what do you need?" Naruto asked stiffening up from his slightly slouched position as he did so.

The clone looked back over his shoulder at his female student for a moment before he turned around and said "Tsunade has said that if you can beat her in a fight then she will consent to returning to the Village with us."

Naruto blinked before he looked over to said Sannin who had a confident grin on her face before looking back at the clone and said "I'm guessing you didn't tell her the fact that I have three partners and what my skill set was."

"Nope." Sarutobi's clone said grinning like the cat that got the canary.

Naruto's grin matched it as he chuckled and said "So it's us four against her. Oh, she's in for a nasty shock if nothing else."

Sarutobi's clone chuckled and said "If what your clones did to Orochimaru is any example, then yes she is. Just don't do anything permanent please. I'd rather not have to give the hat to a permanent burn victim."

Scene Change: Formerly Hidden Sound Base

F39 and Flareon looked up at the massive creature their target had turned into that was now sneering down at them with narrow eyes. The two clones traded a glance and nodded before they were covered in a cloud of smoke as they transformed. When it cleared, the two had turned into a pair of Dragonites. As one the two clones sent a massively overcharged Thunder at the snake's body. To the two's shock, while the electricity sunk into the snake's scales, it didn't seem to have any effect on the body.

The head directly in front of them chuckled as he said "Oh, that tickled."

"Yeah well, do these? Thunder Blitz!" A voice in the woods shouted as a rapid barrage of hundreds of Thunder strikes slammed into the snake's body from the side starting at where the necks merged together and ending halfway down to the end of the tail one after another in a span of twenty seconds forcing a roar of pain out of Orochimaru's eight mouths as one of the bolts halfway through managed to pierce through a weak spot after the others had weakened the skin further and the rest of the attack in that small area continued unhindered. Orochimaru's body shuddered as the electricity coursed through his body for a further thirty seconds before he snapped his heads to the side and shouted "Who dares to attack me?!"

"We do." B220 said as he stepped out of the woods in his new Raikou body, a Suicune clone stood on his left and an Entei clone on his right. Above them, a Lugia, Ho-oh, Moltress, Articuno, and Zapdos hovered above the trees next to a pair of clones transformed into Latias and Latios, the Eon Duo. A little to the left of the ground based group was the creation trio, Uxie, Mespirit, and Axelf. Beneath them was a Heatran. Finally on the other side of the Legendary Dogs group were the last wo clones who had transformed into a Darkrai and Cresselia. Seeing their brothers in Legendary forms, F39 and his brother transformed into a Deoxys Speed Form and a Shaymin Sky Form respectively.

Orochimaru stared at all of the Legendary Pokemon arrayed around him and chuckled as he said "Well now, this should prove interesting. I can only assume that these are the strongest forms you could take in order to combat me. Let's see if they're strong enough to shall we?"

End Chapter

AN: Next Time On To Be A Master

Naruto and his partners take on Tsunade in a bid to get her to return to the village while at the same time Eighteen Legendary clones go up against Orochimaru's final form.


End file.
